USNI News:
USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) won’t be upgraded to the latest version of the Aegis Combat System when it completes its repairs following a collision with a merchant ship off of Japan, according to Naval Sea Systems Command.
Instead of upgrading the combat system of the destroyer to the new Baseline 9 standard, which allows the ship to simultaneously take on ballistic missile and traditional air warfare threats, Fitzgerald will retain a legacy version of Aegis when the destroyer returns to the fleet after its planned repair at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss, NAVSEA said in a statement to USNI News.
Fitzgerald was already scheduled to undergo a midlife upgrade in Fiscal Year 2019, though the Navy intended to conduct a scaled-down availability that would cover hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E) improvements but not a combat system upgrade to Baseline 9. Following the collision, despite the need to replace portions of the ship’s combat system, radar and electronics, the Navy decided to go along with its original decision to keep the ship in a legacy configuration instead of upgrading to Baseline 9.
