US & Japanese Aegis Missile Defense Warships to Form Protective “Shield” Around Taiwan

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

A US-Japanese war preparation alliance is expanding an ability to track and counter Chinese ballistic missiles, anti-ship missiles and even nuclear missiles with combined warship patrols armed with advanced Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) technology.

In a joint exercise called Resilient Shield 2024, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces merged BMD tactics with US Navy warships to refine targeting, networking, fire control and intercept technologies, a US Navy essay stated. Although the exercise took place in a simulated computer-based environment, it was intended to assess US-Japanese threat detection, targeting and networking synergies with a mind to expanding a BMD envelope for both countries. With technological advances, computer based simulations are increasingly capable of closely replicate key performance parameters of weapons systems, along with actual simulated “live-fire” kinds of scenarios, data networking and advanced targeting.

A US-Japanese BMD capability introduces extremely significant tactical dynamics as it could massively expand a missile-defense envelope throughout vulnerable parts of the Pacific theater. Both the US Navy and Japan operate Aegis-warships, as Japan is an Aegis partner. This is critical as it means both countries’ warships will operate with similar software, technological infrastructure, computing and an ability to share target-track information. The Aegis Combat System is an integrated suite of technologies engineered to use common computing standards, software, fire-control and highly-sensitive radar detection to locate, track and destroy incoming enemy ballistic missiles. The most recent upgrades to Aegis, such as Baseline 10 and software-driven “tech-insertions” enable a single system to perform both Ballistic Missile Defenses as well as Air-and-Cruise-Missile defense, meaning that anti-ship-missiles as well as ballistic missiles and even ICBMs can be tracked and intercepted. 

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Therefore, an ability to disperse across wide swaths of ocean yet remain connected could enable US and Japanese BMD warships to defend larger areas with greater speed and precision. At sea BMD capability is not only mobile but capable of moving into new positions across distances in the event threat data changes. Unlike land-based missile defenses such as a Patriot or THAAD, which may have mobile launchers and some mobility, BMD-capable ships could reposition across greater distances and operate closer to the Chinese coast. This means BMD weapons would therefore be better positioned to intercept threats earlier in their trajectory after launch. Aegis Systems will be made with common parts, IP protocols and networking transport layer technologies, something enabling target or radar return data to be quickly shared between dispersed warships operating as “nodes” in a networked “shield” of defenses.

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