HASC Mark Adds $120 Million for 3 Destroyer Combat System Upgrades, Money for Missiles

The House Armed Services Committee added $120 million to pay for a total of three Aegis combat system upgrades to the Navy’s Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyers (DDG-51) as part of the chairman’s mark for the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act.

The funds would upgrade three planned mid-life modernizations from a basic hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E) systems repairs to include a complete refresh of the Aegis combat system from current 1980s era computing technology.

The combat systems upgrades would strip out the older computing architecture from the ships, replace the systems with modern modular servers and add an signal processor to allow the ships to both fight off traditional air threats — like enemy fighters — and perform ballistic missile defense at the same time.

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