The U.S. Navy has certified the latest evolution of the Lockheed Martin Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system.

The USS Shiloh (CG-67) will be the first ship to be upgraded with the Aegis BMD 4.0.1 configuration. The Shiloh's homeport is Yokosuka, Japan.

This second-generation system introduces the Aegis BMD signal processor, which improves target identification capabilities for the Navy and U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and uses open architecture standards to integrate commercial-off-the-shelf technology.

“This milestone represents the continuing evolution of Aegis Combat System capabilities and our commitment to advancing the Aegis system to outpace enemy threats. It is the first step toward a fully open architecture that enables systems to be upgraded faster and at a lower cost,” said Nick Bucci, Director of BMD development programs at Lockheed Martin's Mission Systems & Sensors business.

Aegis BMD-equipped ships provide 2 layers of active missile defense protections against short to intermediate range ballistic missiles and are able to provide surveillance and tracking of ballistic missiles of all ranges. These ships can work together to provide additional depth of fire, handle multiple ballistic missile launches, and enable SM-3 launch on remote operations or execute SM-3 launch on remote operations by exploiting other ballistic missile defense sensors with the TPY-2 radar. The second generation Aegis BMD system improves the significant abilities of the existing system to pace advancements on threat sophistication and tactics.

There are 27 Aegis BMD-equipped ships available for operational deployment – 23 U.S. Navy ships and four Japanese destroyers. More than 100 SM-3 missiles are available to load out on these ships.