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Test Brings Integrated Air and Missile Defense Capability Closer for Aegis Ships

Over the past several decades, navies needed to dedicate at least one ship to anti-air warfare and another to ballistic missile defense to ensure adequate protection.

That is about to change.

The U.S. Navy recently demonstrated a new Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) capability for the Aegis Combat System developed by Lockheed Martin. During the exercise, Lockheed Martin successfully tested its Aegis Baseline 9 that includes IAMD, which enables one ship to provide anti-air and ballistic missile defense (BMD) protection at the same time.

"It’s an exciting time to be part of Aegis’ evolution,” said Jim Sheridan, director of Aegis Baseline 9 programs for Lockheed Martin. “This test is the culmination of two years of hard work by our Lockheed Martin engineers and marks the start of a new era where the Navy no longer has to choose between air or missile defense capabilities for any given mission."

The IAMD capability relies on the Baseline 9 SPY-1 radar’s Multi-Mission Signal Processor that utilizes the latest commercially-off-the-shelf technology to concurrently process both ballistic missile defense and anti-air warfare radar signals. As part of the Aegis modernization program, Baseline 9 brings the latest combat system technology and capabilities to the Navy’s existing cruisers and destroyers, as well as new construction destroyers.

Capable of delivering missiles for every mission and threat environment in naval warfare, Aegis is also used by the navies of Australia, Japan, Norway, the Republic of Korea and Spain. Currently, there are 100 Aegis-equipped ships, including 26 with BMD capability, in service around the globe.