In Jersey, off the Jersey Shore in New Jersey, we as a nation develop, produce and make the world’s best air defense weapon system on a platform called the Aegis that is on 84 U.S. Naval Destroyers and Cruisers, six Japanese ships, five Spanish ships, three Korean ships and is also deployed on land in Hawaii, Romania and of all places, in New Jersey. This Aegis Weapon system developed under the management of Admiral Wayne Myer in the 1970s transformed in the late 90s to include missile defense with the deployed mission of protecting several hundred miles around the ship from all air breathing threats and missiles from space. This technology was driven for the air and missile defense of the United States Aircraft Carrier battle groups. This mission has expanded to include the air and missile defense of coastal nations in particular Israel and Japan in their only first shot capability today against ballistic missiles in defense of their populations. The Aegis is a sea mobile system used to surge and flex as it is doing today in the Black Sea with the USS. Carney (DDG-64) and with the USS Mason (DDG-87) last week in the Red Sea that shot down the anti-ship cruise missiles from the Houthis and through the Bab al-Mandab Strait defending international water. The Aegis system linked with its Vertical Launch System (VLS), interceptors and SPY Radar is self-autonomous and can defend itself and other ships as well as cities on land within its range. The system can also strike with offensive Tomahawk missiles from the same VLS as was seen against the radar sites in Yemen last week. It is both an offense and defensive platform, all uniquely on one mobile platform. Aegis has further been developed to expand its area of defense by launching its interceptors off of other sensors not on the ship and to engage with other interceptors not on the ship, this is the current baseline 9 Aegis System that can do engage and launch off of remote sensors. With this Aegis baseline 9 capability, longer range interceptors that can fly beyond the ships SPY radar range are being developed jointly with Japan and the United States, that interceptor is called the SM-3 Block IIA and is expected to be operational by 2018.

With this impressive proven capability (85% operational test success rate for the SM-3), President Obama and this Administration moved forward to defend all of Europe primarily based off of this Aegis system, engage and launch on remote, SM-3 Block IIA and made the bold exception to place it both on land and at sea in and around Europe. This past June, the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared phase two of the EPAA initial operational capable (IOC). This announcement included the first ever land-based Aegis Ashore site, which is based in Romania, an operational capability linked into its sister ships in the Mediterranean and TPY-2 forward based radar in Turkey.

The Champion engineers and developers of this remarkable system, along those champions developing the Long Range Discriminating Radar (LRDR) – being placed in Alaska in 2020 to increase reliability to defend the U.S. Homeland – were recognized in New Jersey for their excellence as being part of the team that is making the world a safer place.

This past Friday, in Camden, New Jersey at the Adventure Aquarium alongside the Delaware River across from Philadelphia, MDAA hosted the first ever New Jersey Defenders of the Year event with United States Congressman Norcross (D-NJ-1) and Congressman MacArthur (R-NJ-3) to honor these champions.

Champions

Michelle Morrell                                           Steve Daniels

Ron Chushinotto                                           Martin Burnore

Fred Nocito                                                    John Greshock

Rob Waite                                                      Ryan Whitson

Ed Dunne                                                       Brent Ouellette

Brian Coker                                                    Mark Bennett

Roger Johnson                                               Mr. Ed Beach

PO2 Nathan Royston

We are grateful for the 2017 New Jersey Champions for their excellence in leadership to make our nation safe.

Vice Admiral James D. Syring, Director of the Missile Defense Agency, addressing attendees of the New Jersey Defenders of the Year.

Congressman Tom MacArthur (R-NJ-3) addressing attendees of the New Jersey Defenders of the Year.

Congressman Donald Norcross (D-NJ-1) addressing attendees of the New Jersey Defenders of the Year.