Despite a surge in requests for ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships, the Navy’s latest budget requests cuts funding that would upgrade nine destroyers with the newest BMD and combat capabilities.The president’s budget request for 2016 removed funding that had been planned to modernize the Aegis combat system on nine Arleigh Burke destroyers with its new Baseline 9 software, which would boost the ships’ ability to defeat missiles and attack aircraft, Jim Sheridan, director of Aegis programs for Lockheed Martin [LMT],…
