NATO exercise tests air, missile defense under Aegis Combat System
NewsOctober 19, 2017
HEBRIDES, Scotland. The U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency -- in concert with Lockheed Martin and naval forces from eight NATO nations -- have successfully concluded a series of Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) tests in the Atlantic Ocean during an exercise it called Formidable Shield 2017 (FS-17).
The Formidable Shield exercise -- held in the North Atlantic off the coast of Scotland September 24 through October 17, 2017 -- was designed to demonstrate and improve upon allied interoperability in an integrated air and missile defense environment, using NATO command-and-control reporting structures and data link architecture.
In one of the events, a U.S. Navy ship operating with the 4.0.3 Aegis Combat System conducted a simulated engagement of a live short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) target using remote track data provided by a Spanish F-100 class ship. In the same event, another U.S. Navy ship, operating with the Baseline 9.C1 integrated air and missile defense capability, launched SM-2 missiles against cruise missile targets while simultaneously tracking the SRBM.
Jim Sheridan, vice president of Lockheed Martin's Naval Combat & Missile Defense Systems, said in part of the Formidable Shield exercise: "Working with our allied nations and the U.S. Navy depicts the interoperability of the Aegis Combat System with other disparate systems in an integrated air and missile defense environment."
