WASHINGTON -Sailors aboard the USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) in
partnership with U.S. Pacific Command and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
successfully executed Flight Test Standard Missile-25 (FTM-25), the first
live-fire event in the integrated air and missile defense radar priority mode to
engage a ballistic missile target and a raid of cruise missile targets with its
AEGIS Combat System, announced Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare
Systems (PEO IWS), Nov. 20.
DDG 53 engaged three successful near-simultaneous target shots
over the Pacific Ocean by the Aegis Baseline 9.C1 (BMD 5.0 Capability Upgrade)
Weapon System. One short-range ballistic missile target was intercepted by a
Standard Missile-3 Block IB guided missile, while two low-flying cruise missile
targets were engaged by Standard Missile-2 Block IIIA guided missiles.
"The capability that the USS John Paul Jones demonstrated
during FTM-25 is the culmination of years of tough engineering across the Navy's
technical community and our industry partners," said Rear Adm. Jon A. Hill, PEO
IWS. "The technology displayed during FTM-25 will be a critical addition to the
fleet and their ability to stay prepared."
PEO IWS spearheaded the FTM-25 as part of a developmental
test/operational test sequence of events. Other test participants included
discriminating sensors flown on two MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles and
sensor systems ashore, Command and Control, Battle Management and Communications
(C2BMC) Enterprise Sensors Lab, C2BMC Experimentation Lab, and the AEGIS Ashore
Missile Defense Test Complex located at the Pacific Missile Range
Facility.
Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems
manages surface ship and submarine combat technologies and systems and
coordinates Navy enterprise solutions across ship platforms.