Page 59 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2022

MAY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
SEAPOWER AEGIS 59
known as the Aegis Weapon System (AWS), it is designed to track more than 100 targets simultaneously.
Together with the SPY-1 multi-function phased-array ra- dar, development began in the 1970s and the system was first installed into a US Navy ship (USS Ticonderoga) and commissioned in 1983.
According to the US Navy, the AWS is, “A centralised, automated, Command and Control (C2) and weapons con- trol system that was designed as a total weapons system from detection to kill. The heart of the system is the SPY, an advanced, automatic detect and track, multi-function phased-array radar. This high-powered radar is able to per- form search, track and missile guidance functions simul- taneously, with a track capacity of more than 100 targets.”
Continuous improvements through several capability ‘blocks’ known as Baselines have evolved the system and today the AWS has evolved to be capable of integrating a range of sensors and effectors to develop three-dimension- al awareness around the ship. Along the way capabilities such as the Close in Weapons System, new missiles (in- cluding ESSM), Australia’s Nulka
decoy, Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW) suites, Cooperative Engage- ment Capability (CEC) and the aforementioned Ballistic Missile Defence have been added.
“BASELINE 9 WILL DELIVER A NUMBER OF IMPROVEMENTS OVER THE EARLIER VERSION OF AEGIS, MOST NOTABLY A BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENCE (BMD) CAPABILITY”
newest surface combatants will enable it to be ‘turned on’ if required, with very little modification to each vessel.
But Aegis is a continuously developing system, so what comes after Baseline 9 and how will this ensure Austra- lia’s fighting ships remain common across the RAN and its partners and allies?
THE SHIELD OF ZEUS
According to Greek mythology, Aegis is a protective shield most often carried by Zeus and is an apt name for a com- bat system developed for the US Navy as primarily an air defence management system in the beginning. Officially
At the heart of the Aegis system is what is termed the Common Source Library (CSL), the enabling software which grows as each new package of software is incorpo- rated following integration of each new sensor or effector. In layman’s terms the CSL is the ‘brain’ of the system and forms the basis of the way AWS is planned to develop be- yond the current Baseline methodology.
AEGIS FOR AUSTRALIA
Australia joined the operators of the AWS in June 2007, when Navantia’s proposal for Sea 4000 (Air Warfare De- stroyer) based on the Aegis-equipped F100 Álvaro de Ba- zán-class was selected as the winning design.
The first DDG, HMAS Hobart, was commissioned in September 2017 and followed by HMAS Brisbane in Oc- tober 2018 and HMAS Sydney in May 2020, becoming the most capable surface warships in the RAN’s history.
When commissioned, the Hobart-class DDGs were in Aegis Baseline 7.1 Refresh 2 configuration, but have since been upgraded to Baseline 8 standard. Baseline 8 provides air, surface and underwater warfare in a single combat sys- tem but does not include a Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD)
ABOVE: HMAS Brisbane alongside Yokosuka, Japan, during the ship’s Regional Presence Deployment in 2021
Today there are more than 100
Aegis ships in service with navies
around the world, including Aus-
tralia, Japan, Norway, Spain and
South Korea – and it is also used as
a land-based system dubbed ‘Aegis
Ashore’ by Japan, Romania and the United States.
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