By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior
Three Aegis-radar capable Navies are now operating in the East China Sea in a show of force and interoperability, something which could enable a protective umbrella for Taiwan, South Korea and Japan given the extent of networking and missile defense technology.
The US Navy’s USS George Washington Nimitz-class carrier and supporting DDG 51 destroyers have been operating in formation with destroyers from both the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces and South Korean Navy in multi-national war preparation exercise called Freedom Edge 24-2. While the exercise is clearly designed to demonstrate “forward presence” to deter any one of a number of possible contingencies, to include a surprise Chinese missile salvo attack or attempted amphibious take-over of Taiwan.
The tri-lateral formation is significant in terms of networking and forward presence, given that the warships from each country can identify common transport layer methods of secure communication and coordinate movements, yet is also brings a perhaps lesser realized ballistic missile defense shield.
Aegis Combat Systems can increasingly track and destroy ballistic missile threats as well as air and cruise missile threats on a single, upgraded Baseline 10 system, something which is massively fortified by multi-national elements of Aegis, particularly since both the Republic of Korea Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force are Aegis partner nations. With a common set of software, radar and fire control, it is entirely possible that Korean, Japanese and US ships could form a collective, multi-national defensive “wall” in critical parts of the Pacific. Aegis is particularly valuable as it brings mobile, at-sea ballistic missile defense not tied to a specific land launch area. This means warships from each country could maneuver into an optimal position to provide a protective blanket surrounding high value target areas such as Taiwan.
The other critical part of this simply relates to networking, given that Aegis systems are configured with similar technologies such that they can quickly and easily share information with other Aegis-capable warships from different countries. In a tactical sense, this means that an Aegis ship from the US Navy could potentially pass along a “target track” of an incoming ballistic missile to a Japanese or Korean warship equipped with an Aegis Combat System. This would allow defensive forces to sustain a continuous radar “track” on an approaching missile as it traveled from one radar aperture to another. Incoming ballistic missiles which might otherwise be lost from targeting during transition can be “handed off” or exchanged between Aegis-capable warships from any of the three countries.
Furthermore, while traveling in the East China Sea, the trilateral formation of Aegis warships can bring offensive and defensive firepower well within range of both the Chinese mainland and island of Taiwan, forming a strong, multi-national deterrence posture in the region.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization
and Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics& Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
