Page 60 - Australian Defence Magazine May 2022

60 SEAPOWER AEGIS
MAY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
capability. In the US Navy, BMD capability was previously provided by dedicated BMD-capable Ticonderoga-class cruisers.
At the Pacific Exhibition – the forerunner to today’s In- do-Pacific event – in October 2017, then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull used his opening address to announce that Lockheed Martin was the winner of the competition to supply the combat system for Navy’s Sea 5000 (Future Frigate) program – now the Hunter-class – together with the Saab Australian Interface.
For all surface ships not requiring high-end warfighting capability, Turnbull mandated the Saab 9LV combat system. During his address, Turnbull said the decision to mandate Aegis would enable the ships to engage missile threats at long distances. “A number of states, notably of course North Korea, are developing missiles with advanced range and speed. We must have the capability to defeat them,” he said.
TRANSITION TO BASELINE 9
Aegis Baseline 9 integrates all Aegis Baseline 8 capabilities with the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) capability, as well as a number of other operational enhancements, and on 16 December last year, Lockheed Martin Australia was awarded a $33 million design contract to support the upgrade of the three Hobart-class destroyers.
Baselines 9 and 10 are the US Navy’s current standard, the difference between them primarily being the replace- ment of the SPY-1 radar with Raytheon’s SPY-6 Air and Missile Defence Radar (AMDR) in the latest DDG (Arleigh Burke-class) Flight IIIA ships and, in the future, Ford-class aircraft carriers and Constellation-class (FFGX) frigates.
Lockheed Martin’s contract with Defence is under the Sea 4000 Phase 6 as part of a ‘rolling wave’ of upgrades to the DDGs and the two-year Combat System Design Agent (CSD-A) will see most of the work performed in Adelaide.
“As the RAN’s steward of the Aegis ca- pability, Lockheed Martin Australia will deliver advanced naval combat systems engineering services under the CDS-A contract. This will achieve the landmark integration of the Aegis Combat System Baseline 9 software into the Hobart-class destroyers,” the company said in a state- ment marking the contract award.
“This contract will create opportunities for Lockheed Martin Australia’s industry partners such as Relegen, a Sydney-based maritime data specialist that will support configuration updates associated with CDS-A activities. This work provides an enduring baseline for the RAN’s ongoing sustainment of the Aegis Combat System beyond the completion of the contract.”
So, what is Baseline 9 and why is it im- portant for Navy? To answer those ques- tions and to find out what comes next, ADM recently spoke with Lockheed Mar- tin’s Business Development Director Neale Prescott and Joe DePietro, Vice President of Integrated Warfare Systems and Sensors.
“Navy recognises the benefit of having a fleet that is unified in its capability, and then there’s a real focus on how that Aus- tralian force can fit into a larger group – particularly interoperability with the US
ABOVE LEFT: One of the RAN’s Aegis consoles used for training DDG crewmembers
LEFT: The Aegis Combat System, incorporating the phased-array SPY- 1D radar, in combination with the SM-2 missile, provides an advanced air defence system capable of engaging enemy aircraft and missiles at ranges in excess of 150km
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