Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System

The Aegis ballistic missile defense system (Aegis BMD or ABMD), also known as Sea-Based Midcourse, is a Missile Defense Agency program under the United States Department of Defense developed to provide missile defense against short and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. The program is part of the United States national missile defense strategy and European NATO missile defense system.

Aegis BMD is an expansion of the Aegis combat system deployed on warships, designed to intercept ballistic missiles in mid-course phase (i.e., after the rocket burn has completed but prior to reentry into the atmosphere). Aegis BMD-equipped vessels can engage potential threats using the Standard Missile 3 mid-course interceptors and the Standard Missile 2 and Standard Missile 6 terminal-phase interceptors. Notable subcontractors and technical experts include Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Honeywell, Engility, Naval Surface Warfare Center, SPAWAR Systems Center, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (Lincoln Lab).

On November 17, 2020, an Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) system-equipped destroyer intercepted and destroyed a threat-representative intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) target with a standard missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA missile during a flight test demonstration in the broad ocean area northeast of Hawaii.