The contract signed between the US navy and Lockheed Martin involves the integration, support and maintenance of the new Mk 41 Vertical Launch Systems or VLS systems.
It would be fair to say that the Mk 41 is capable of firing any missile in the US inventory. Vertical launchers equip the Ticonderoga class cruisers and Arleigh Burke destroyers since the 1980.
The VLS, the world's only multi-mission system, can launch a wide range of missiles for both defense and attack: these range from Tomahawk missiles to RIM-7 Sea Sparrow.
With updates, the Mk 41 VLS will be able to launch, just as an example, the advanced version (Block 2) of the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, but the entire redesign will lead to much better performance thanks to the greater quantity of data transmitted via ethernet , to the new bidirectional digital interfaces and to the GPS data feeds.
If the US Navy decides to fully upgrade the Mk 41 system, the figure could reach two hundred million dollars (Lockeed Martin talks about 182 million dollars). There are about ninety American warships equipped with the Mk 41 weapon system for nine thousand launch tubes.
Meanwhile, Huntington Ingalls Industries has successfully completed tests on the new USS Gerald R. Ford anchor system. For FoxNews this milestone is a milestone in the history of the US navy.
The construction of the Ford began in November of the 2009: it will be the leader of the new class of carriers. Among the improvements introduced in the Ford class, a new nuclear power plant, a redesigned island, electromagnetic catapults, improved weapon system and an advanced flight deck. Ford will enter service in the 2016. It will replace the USS Enterprise, laid up in 2012 after 51 years of service.
But "the navy will always have an Enterprise". The CVN-80 class Gerald R. Ford will be the ninth ship to bear the name "USS Enterprise". He will enter the 2025 service and return to being the most powerful aircraft carrier on the planet.
Franco Iacch
(photo: DoD USA)
