The U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency (MDA) recently certified the newest and most advanced version of the Aegis Combat System, Baseline 9, writing a new chapter in the legacy of the program. The certification milestone represents the completion of U.S. Government analysis and tests – including the successful Multi-mission Warfare series of tests aboard the destroyer USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) – designed to demonstrate the operational capability of the system and verify that ship’s force can operate and maintain the system effectively.  

Aegis Baseline 9 provides the U.S. Navy surface fleet with the most advanced air defense capability ever. The destroyer variant of the baseline, called Baseline 9.C1, also includes the most current generation of ballistic missile defense (BMD) programming, known as BMD 5.0 CU. Under the Baseline 9 configuration, Aegis merges BMD and anti-air warfare into its Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) capability using commercial-off-the-shelf and open architecture technologies developed by Lockheed Martin.