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The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) on 24 February demonstrated the ability of Aegis destroyers to co-ordinate and determine the best ship to engage multiple short-range ballistic missile targets launched near simultaneously.

The latest ballistic missile defence (BMD) test, which took place off the coast from Wallops Island, Virginia, demonstrated Lockheed Martin's Distributed Weighted Engagement Scheme (DWES).

The capability enables automatic engagement co-ordination between ships to help avoid having to launch multiple missiles to shoot down the targets, Paul Klammer, director of BMD programmes, integration, and strategy for Lockheed Martin, told reporters on 24 February.

"[We were] testing sophisticated algorithms that we put in place as [part of the] BMD 4 functionality to make sure these ships co-ordinated their engagements and to make sure that the ship that had the best shot at the target took it," he said.

"We reduced duplication of BMD engagements. It also saves on missile expenditures; from an inventory perspective it is important that that functionality works. It also gave us a great opportunity to test that the system works in a raid scenario where you have three very challenging short-range separating BMD targets."

For the test, USS Carney (DDG 64) and USS Gonzalez (DDG 66), both equipped with the Aegis Baseline 4 capability, acquired and tracked three short-range ballistic missile targets launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Klammer said.

"In this scenario one ship took two shots and one ship took one. The USS Gonzalez took two [shots] based on how DWES [determined] who had best shot. The system can be configured to automatically fire or have operator intervention," he said.

Both ships fired simulated Standard Missile-3s.

Lockheed Martin, the MDA and US Navy (USN) have a lot of data to go through from the event. Klammer noted the DWES algorithm that determines the preferred shooter performed as designed.

A third ship, USS Barry (DDG 52), equipped with Aegis baseline 9, also took part in the test, but it did not participate in the co-ordinated tracking and engagement of the three ballistic missile targets, he added.

"[ Barry was] tracking the three targets and doing simulated engagements similar to what the other ships were doing, except that [ Carney and Gonzalez ] were testing out DWES," Klammer said. " Barry gave us an opportunity to use the latest Baseline 9 build and make sure we could do simultaneous engagements in the same raid-type scenario."

The difference between Carney and Gonzalez equipped with Aegis Baseline 4 and Barry equipped with Baseline 9 is that the baseline 4 ships have a combination of the older UYK military-based and commercial off-the-shelf computers and rely on the ballistic signal processor functionality, Klammer noted.

Barry just received Baseline 9, which has the latest software configuration that brings an integrated air and missile defence capability to the ship. Baseline 9 also has the multi-mission signal processor, which is capable of conducting both air and BMD missions simultaneously.

Aegis Baseline 9 has DWES capability built in. Additionally two cruisers, USS Lake Erie (CG 70) and USS Shiloh (CG 67), have DWES functionality.

The US Navy Aegis missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) successfully conducted a flight test yesterday, November 6, 2014 testing the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system capability to defeat a synchronized raid by nearly simultaneous attacks of ballistic and cruise missiles. The test included three successful near-simultaneous target engagements over the Pacific Ocean.

This scenario represents potential threats expected from countries such as China, North Korea and Iran, possessing anti-ship ballistic missiles (such as China’s Dong-Feng 21 – DF-21) and cruise missiles, capable of attacking naval forces at distances of hundreds of miles from shore.

For this milestone test USS John Paul Jones was equipped with the Aegis Baseline (BL) 9.C1 (BMD 5.0 Capability Upgrade) Weapon System, enabling the Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers to rapidly switch between BMD and the area air defense role – a capability that proved critical for the tests’ success. As part of the test group, two MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles assisted the intercept, providing target discrimination by airborne sensors.

The key for successful intercepts such as this is simultaneous, multi-mode operation of the radar arrays, signal processors and combat information system, enabling users to monitor their surrounding with high level of confidence and engage multiple targets of different domains coming at the vessel from different trajectories, directions and speed.

Tokyo is planning to revise a law to include any vessels contributing to Japanese defense

The Japanese government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are currently discussing the idea of including a provision about protecting South Korean Aegis destroyers in a revised version of the Self-Defense Forces Law, which will be submitted to the regular session of the Japanese Diet, newspaper reports indicate. South Korea uses the Aegis destroyers to monitor ballistic missile launches by North Korea. “The Japanese government notified the ruling party of its plan to include a clause that would allow the Japan Self-Defense Forces to defend the warships of countries other than the US in a revision to legislation pertaining to national security, including the Self-Defense Forces Act, which it plans to submit to the Diet during the current session,” the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said in a Jan. 27 report. “There is a growing sense inside the Japanese government that the militaries of other countries, including Australia, are likely to participate in a missile defense system. As a result, it began reviewing the idea of revising the law to enable the Japan Self-Defense Forces to defend the military units of other countries - not just the US - to ensure Japan’s security,” the newspaper said, explaining why the Japanese government had decided on this course of action. When the Japanese cabinet announced in June 2014 that it was altering its interpretation of the constitution to allow the exercise of the right of collective self-defense, it stated that it would revise the law to enable the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) to take the minimum necessary military action to defend US warships or other military units that are acting in concert with the JSDF to protect Japan. As a specific example of what such a revision might mean, the Japanese government explained that Japan could defend American Aegis destroyers off the coast of Japan that can detect ballistic missiles launches in North Korea. If the Japanese government’s plan takes effect, the JSDF would be responsible for protecting not only US vessels, but any vessels that are contributing to the defense of Japan. While the Mainichi Shimbun mentioned Australia as a country to which the plan could apply, realistically speaking, South Korea‘s Aegis destroyers - which are capable of tracking North Korea’s ballistic missiles - are expected to be the primary beneficiaries of protection by the JDFS. On Dec. 29, 2014, South Korea, the US, and Japan signed an agreement about sharing intelligence related to threats posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles. Concerns are growing that this information-sharing agreement will ultimately bring South Korea one step closer to joining the US-led missile defense program, while accelerating military integration between the three countries. “The cabinet decision only provides overall guidance. There is no problem with passing laws that include points that were not mentioned in the original decision,” a Japanese government official said in regard to the fact that the cabinet decision in July 2014 did not discuss an expansion of the JSDF’s defensive responsibilities.

ROTA, Spain (NNS) -- The forward-deployed Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) departed Naval Station Rota, Spain in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations, March 14.
Donald Cook is the first of four destroyers to be part of the Navy's Forward Deployed Naval Forces in Rota which is part of the Phased Adaptive Approach to protect European allies, partners, U.S. forces in the region, and the U.S. homeland against current and emerging ballistic missile threats.
"From theater security cooperation in the Mediterranean, to NATO exercises and training, to maritime security operations, this ship is capable of conducting prompt, sustained combat operations at sea in support of U.S. national policy," said Cmdr. Scott Jones, Donald Cook's commanding officer.
While on patrol in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations, Donald Cook will perform numerous missions, including NATO missile defense, maritime security operations, bilateral and multilateral training exercises.
U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts a full range of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation missions in concert with coalition, joint, interagency, and other parties in order to advance security and stability in Europe and Africa.