Vol. 73/No. 3      January 26, 2009

The warships, two cruisers and one destroyer, will be equipped with the SM-3 missile system designed to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles, according to Defense News. Last February, the U.S. military shot down a satellite traveling 17,000 miles per hour at an altitude of more than 130 miles. The successful SM-3 intercept registered Washington’s progress in ABM system development.

The three additions will bring the number of Aegis warships in the U.S. antiballistic missile weapons system to 21. This will increase the number of Aegis warships outfitted with the technology in the Atlantic from two to five. The other 16 vessels are assigned to the Pacific Fleet.

Washington’s deployment of most of its missile-targeting fleet in the Pacific was aimed most publicly at North Korea and its expanding ballistic missile and nuclear capabilities. But the Pacific system also targets China, which not only possesses nuclear ICBMs capable of reaching the United States, but is also working on ballistic missiles designed to take out warships.

Now the U.S military is moving to build up its ABM on the other side of the world. “I believe near term that we need an additional four to six Atlantic Fleet ships,” Rear Adm. Alan Hicks, the director of the Aegis antiballistic weapons program, told reporters in August.

The expansion of the system’s capability in the Atlantic is aimed at countering “Iran’s potential to strike targets in Europe,” according to Defense News. But the buildup of the antimissile fleet in the Atlantic also boosts Washington’s capacity to counter Moscow’s nuclear arsenal. Russia is the only country other than China that has nuclear ICBMs capable of reaching the United States.

Washington has also been setting up ABM radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missile batteries in Poland—a move that Moscow opposes and is seeking to counter or reverse.

Aegis vessels, produced by Lockheed Martin, incorporate sophisticated radar and computer systems into the U.S. Ticonderoga cruisers and Arleigh Burke destroyers, as well as a few other non-U.S. warships. The United States had 74 Aegis-equipped warships as of May 2007, with plans for 22 more. Eighteen of these are currently equipped with ABM technology. Small Aegis fleets totaling little more than a dozen are owned by Japan, Spain, Norway, Australia, and South Korea.

The U.S. military is also upgrading its ABM Aegis system to allow the warships to intercept missiles as they are heading back towards earth. Currently they are designed to hit ballistic missiles in the upper layer of the earth’s atmosphere as they are in ascent. All 18 currently ABM-outfitted Aegis warships are to be updated with the new technology by June.  
 
 
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