ABOUT AEGIS
In Greek Mythology, Aegis was the thunderbolt and
breastplate that serves as the shield for Zeus, the king of gods. Today=s Aegis is about the empire
of U.S. militarism, the international arms trade, the projection of U.S. power
on and over the seas and increasingly missile defense (sometimes referred to as
AStar Wars@) and the militarization of
space. Aegis is also about the power of the world=s largest weapons
corporation, Lockheed Martin.
Aegis is the battle tracking and naval combat
engagement equipment around which the Navy has built what it calls Athe most powerful
war-fighting system the Navy has today.@
Developed in the 1970's, in the wake of the Vietnam
War, Aegis is the Navy=s most expensive surface warship ever - $1.2 billion
per cruiser, $1 billion per destroyer -
and is also the most used weapons system over the past three decades .
Aegis warships contain a complex mix of radar (the AN-SPY-1A), computerized
fire control and launch systems, all integrated in and through a CIC, Combat
Information Center, which controls an on-board arsenal of SM-2 missiles, 5 in.
rapid fire guns, Phalanx close-in weapons system, and Tomahawk cruise missiles
(nuclear-capable) with vertical launch system (VLS) holding as many as 122
cruise missiles. Aegis is designed to track and destroy - with automatic
capability Afrom detection to kill@ - as many as 100 moving
stationary targets simultaneously within a radius of 300 miles. Providing Athe capability for overall
force coordination@ [Navy Fact File], the Aegis combat system is also
the command center-point for the coordinated Naval Surface Battle Group in
which a battleship or aircraft carrier operates along with an Aegis cruiser and
other surface ships, support and assault aircraft, and fast-attack submarines.
One Aegis cruiser or destroyer is a lethal weapons
system and a launch pad for Tomahawk cruise missiles. The same ship operating
with surface battle group is a command post for the even greater lethality of
an entire battle arsenal operation on, below, and above the sea. It was an
Aegis cruiser, the USS Bunker Hill (CG-52), that fired the first cruise missile
into Iraq at the start of AOperation: Desert Storm@ in 1991. Aegis warships
fired the first cruise missiles, and many of the subsequent cruise missiles
attacks, in AOperation: Iraqi Freedom@ in March 2003.
IF IT FLIES, IT DIES!
Crews
aboard the Aegis cruiser, USS Vincennes, had dubbed their ship ARobo-cruiser@ because of its extensive
automated detection and launch systems and an ominous slogan AIf it flies, it dies!@. On July 3, 1988, the USS
Vincennes, while patrolling the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq (and while
within Iranian territorial waters), slammed two SM-2 missiles into an Iranian
civilian airline, killing all 290 people on-board.
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The first Aegis cruiser, the USS Ticonderoga
(CG-47), was commissioned in 1983. A fleet of 66 U.S. Navy Aegis-equipped
cruisers and destroyers (the Ardleigh Burke, DDG, class) have been built and 23
more are planned. Half of the production costs for the fleet of Aegis cruisers
and destroyers goes for the Aegis radar and battle command equipment, produced
by the world=s largest weapons corporation, Lockheed Martin,
primarily at its AMaritime Systems and Sensors@ Division complex in
Moorestown, NJ. The Moorestown complex includes a joint U.S. Navy - Lockheed
Martin Combat Engineering facility for the testing of Aegis equipment and the training of Aegis crews.
Located in the middle of a South Jersey cornfield, the testing and training
facility resembles the top half of a
Navy cruiser, the AUSS Rancocas@, and is often referred to
as the Acornfield cruiser@.
Other Aegis contractors include the Applied Physics
Lab at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. The Aegis shipbuilder is Bath
Iron Works in Maine.