The U.S. Defense Department plans to place Aegis ballistic missile defense technology on two to four additional warships, the Navy Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 31, 2008).
Ugrades are planned for two cruisers and one destroyer from the Navy's Atlantic Fleet, said Lisa Callahan, Lockheed Martin vice president for maritime ballistic missile defense. The move would give the United States a total of 21 Aegis-equipped ships.
Missile Defense Agency spokesman Chris Taylor would not confirm the number, though; he said only that “MDA and the Navy are discussing how to do two to four additional ships as soon as possible.”
A Navy source said the Pentagon would upgrade "two to four" ships and might announce the plan next week.
Outfitting a single vessel with the defenses costs between $10 million and $12 million, a price that includes later software updates and hardware tweaks. Three U.S. cruisers and 15 U.S. destroyers have received the technology to date; the ships are based at Norfolk, Va., San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Yokosuka, Japan.
The defenses were originally intended to guard against potential North Korean missile attacks, but Washington has become increasingly concerned about possible Iranian strikes on Europe, according to the Times.
"I believe near term that we need an additional four to six Atlantic Fleet ships in order to give the necessary flexibility to the fleet commander to keep the presence forward," Rear Adm. Alan Hicks, program director for Aegis ballistic missile defense, said in August.
The first Aegis ships could target enemy ballistic missiles in the upper atmosphere, and a software upgrade enables them to attempt interceptions of missiles in their final phase of flight. The entire U.S. Aegis fleet is set to receive the new software by June, said John Holly, vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
Work to upgrade the additional ships is expected to start once the software updates are finished, Callahan said (Christopher Cavas/Navy Times, Jan. 7).
Meanwhile, South Korea's first Aegis-equipped vessel entered service yesterday, Lockheed Martin announced.
The world's 89 Aegis ships are operated by Australia, Japan, Norway, South Korea, Spain and the United States, the defense contractor said (Lockheed Martin release/PR-newswire, Jan. 7).