Scott Nicholas
Lockheed Martin has collaborated with an alliance composed of Australia’s defense department, Raytheon‘s Australian subsidiary, ASC Shipbuilding and Navantia to conduct a five-week sea acceptance trial for a Hobart-class air warfare destroyer.
The Air Warfare Destroyer Alliance and Lockheed jointly tested Australia’s future HMAS destroyer to verify the ship platform and determine if the vessel could support the Aegis combat system, Lockheed said Monday.
HMAS is the first of three Hobart-class multimission destroyers to be equipped with Lockheed’s Aegis weapon system as part of Australia’s SEA 4000 program.
“The team is dedicated to ensuring the successful delivery of Hobart’s Aegis capability to the Royal Australian Navy,” said Paul Waterworth, Aegis engineer at Lockheed’s Australian arm.
Jim Sheridan, vice president of Lockheed’s naval combat and missile defense systems business, added the ship-based combat system will work to help Australia address modern threats.
Aegis is designed with an automated command-and-control weapon control system that functions as a total combat management system to support network-centric warfare, cooperative engagement and missile technologies.
The Hobart Integrated Test Team comprised of Lockheed technicians and engineers from the U.S. and Australia and led the at-sea trials of the Aegis combat system aboard the HMAS platform.
