Arleigh Burke Destroyer Fires Aegis at Multiple Targets for the First Time

One of the reasons there are few predators willing to go after Arleigh Burkes is the insane protection system these ships come with. And at the system's core sits the Aegis Weapon System, backed by the SPY-1D multi-function passive electronically scanned array radar.

Aegis is a piece of tech developed by Lockheed Martin. It offers, in a single package, everything a ship would need to defend itself: the displays on which the operator sees the threats, the radar that detects and tracks them, the computer programs that run the whole thing, and of course the missile launch element.

The main goal of the tech is to fire anti-aircraft, anti-surface, anti-submarine, and ballistic missiles, for both defensive and offensive purposes. It's the former use we're going to focus on now, as, for the first time ever, the Aegis proved it can take on multiple threats at once.

Technically speaking the Navy always knew the system could theoretically engage multiple targets at once, but never actually tried out the concept. That changed recently, after one of the many Arleigh Burke destroyers, the USS Carl M Levin (DDG 120) was deployed at the Pacific Missile Test Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii for exactly this purpose.

The test was conducted to see whether the latest incarnation of the Aegis, FTM-48 (aka Vigilant Wyvern) is capable of handling multiple anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles.

Although the exact details of what went on in the Pacific are not known, Lockheed Martin did announce last week the successful completion of the first such test, and called the achievement a "significant first for the Aegis Combat System."

As per the defense contractor, "this event proved ships equipped with the latest advanced Aegis Combat System can defend against numerous Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) threats simultaneously and are pacing the threat any adversary employs."

More tests of the system are on the horizon, but Lockheed will not stop here, as it now plans to further evolve Aegis by the inclusion of new, solid-state radars.

As for the ship that was the center of this premiere, the USS Carl M Levin is one of the most recent destroyers of its class made, having been commissioned in the summer of this year. The ship's home port is Pearl Harbor.

Like all other vessels of its class, it packs guns, missiles, and torpedoes, and it's home to 380 sailors and two helicopters.