"She Is Loaded" - First Atlantic-Based BMD Destroyer Sets Sail

Remember my recent freak-out about AviationWeek's leak of the perilous warzone deployment of our most experienced ballistic missile defense (BMD) ship and crew? It's all good --- we just sortied yet another BMD-certified destroyer:

NORFOLK, Va. — The destroyer Ramage left the pier Friday with a big, new arrow in its quiver. Departing as part of the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group, the 14-year-old warship was the first Atlantic-based Arleigh Burke to deploy ready for ballistic missile defense.

“She is loaded,” said Rear Adm. Alan Hicks, program director for Aegis ballistic missile defense, in a teleconference with reporters. “She can search and track for cueing; she can do engagements of exoatmospheric threats; and she can defend herself against air threats. That is our definition of fully mission-capable.”

While she's the first missile defender in the Atlantic, the USS Ramage has plenty of company in the Pacific --- 16 BMD-ready ships are already on station there, including a notable namesake:

The pic up top is DDG-56, the USS John S. McCain, named after both the Senator's father and grandfather.

"Fortune Favors the Brave"

Comments

[EC]

RAWK!