MDA, Navy Demo Lockheed’s Updated Aegis Combat System in On-Land Missile Defense Test

The Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Navy have conducted an on-land test to demonstrate the capability of Lockheed Martin’s latest Aegis Combat System to detect and counter an intermediate-range ballistic missile threat.

Aegis Baseline 9.B2.0 or BMD 5.1 intercepted an IRBM target using ground-based remote sensor data derived from the Command and Control, Battle Management and Communications system during the Flight Test Integrated-03, Lockheed said Tuesday.

The Aegis system’s latest iteration features an integrated air and missile defense capability designed to protect NATO Europe from missile threats, the company noted.

The demonstration builds on the Flight Test Standard Missile-45 event conducted in October aboard the USS John Finn (DDG 113) Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and another test of the weapon system with the JS Atago (DDG 177) ship in September.

Lockheed has begun development work on the BMD 5.1 variant computer program for installation aboard Japan’s Aegis-based destroyer ships.