USNI:
The Maritime Theater Missile Defense (MTMD) Forum’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense At-Sea Demonstration this week will help Aegis Combat System developer Lockheed Martin validate how well coalition forces’ platforms can work together in the real world and discover any improvements that may need to be made to the system.
Nine countries are in the midst of a three-week integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) exercise, and the biggest event took place on Oct. 20 – the the simultaneous tracking and interception of a ballistic missile and cruise missile threats to coalition forces using several navies’ assets.
Mary Keifer, Lockheed Martin’s Aegis in-service and fleet readiness program director, told reporters Oct. 21 that the ballistic and cruise missile engagement was the third of four ballistic missile launches during the three-week exercise, with each launch testing “different link architectures or network arrangements of who is connected to whom and how data is distributed.”
For example, the Oct. 20 launch involved four ships: American guided missile destroyers USS Ross (DDG-71) and USS The Sullivans (DDG-68), Spanish frigate Almirante Juan de Borbón (F-102) and Norwegian frigate HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen (F-310). The Sullivans intercepted the cruise missile, while Almirante Juan de Borbón tracked the ballistic missile, and sent data to a shore-based American asset, which forwarded the tracking data to Ross to intercept. Fridtjof Nansen served as a battle group support ship during this phase of the exercise.
In an earlier portion of the exercise, though, the Spanish frigate sent cuing data directly to Ross rather than using a shore-based intermediary.
Keifer told reporters that the variety of networking arrangements helps the U.S. Navy, Missile Defense Agency, Lockheed Martin and others understand just how interoperable the system is and if there are any flaws that need to be addressed…
