The Missile Defense Agency gave Lockheed Martin [LMT] a $40.4 million contract change to provide ballistic missile defense (BMD) capability to a Japanese Aegis-equipped destroyer, the JS Myoko, the company said recently.
This would be the third of four Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force destroyers to receive the upgrade.
The JS Kongo already has been equipped with the Aegis BMD Weapon System, which detects, identifies and guides an interceptor to eliminate an enemy missile. The Kongo last month used the Aegis system to destroy a target missile.
Work is underway to install the Aegis BMD system on the JS Chokai at Nagasaki, Japan.
Jimmy Carter, Lockheed Martin director of advanced and international sea-based missile defense programs, said in a briefing for journalists that Japan is the only nation to have contracted for and procured such an advanced system, but several other nations are potential candidates for the Aegis BMD system. He spoke at Lockheed Martin offices near the Pentagon.
“We’ve been questioned by Spain,” he said. “A couple of years ago we had questions from Norway we responded to. Australia has always asked questions about it, and we have briefings. We go over to Australia.”
But “at this point, Japan is the only one that has actually stepped up and created and generated a contract.”
A total of 18 U.S. Navy ships are in line to complete installations of Aegis BMD systems soon, and eventually there could be 84 U.S. Aegis BMD vessels.
Carter was asked whether the 18 ships would be sufficient for the U.S. Navy to be able to keep at least one ship on station, 24/7, off North Korea and China, and also near Iran.
But he declined to respond, saying that deployment of ships is a Navy decision, and would depend on various parameters: “What are you defending? Where is the threat coming from? How many ships would it take to cover that?”
The Aegis BMD record in testing includes 12 ballistic missile intercepts in 14 attempts.
Some lawmakers last year saw the Aegis system as having mature technology and less risk, and therefore attempted to shift money from some more developmental BMD programs to Aegis.
The Aegis BMD system integrates the SPY-1 radar, the MK 41 Vertical Launching System, the Raytheon [RTN] Standard Missile-3, or SM-3, and the Aegis command and control system.
The Aegis BMD system also integrates with the Missile Defense Agency multi-program ballistic missile defense shield, receiving cues from and providing cueing information to other missile defense systems.
The Aegis Weapon System at various levels of sophistication currently is deployed on 85 ships around the globe with more than 20 additional ships planned or under contract. In addition to the United States and Japan, Aegis is used by Spain, Norway, South Korea and Australia.