From Global Security Newswire:

The U.S. Navy would outfit its entire cruiser and destroyer fleets with Aegis ballistic missile defense technology under a proposal announced earlier this month by the service’s surface warfare director, Inside Missile Defense reported (see GSN, Nov. 29, 2007 ).

Rear Adm. Victor Guillory praised Aegis defenses as “the next big thing” in naval warfare — analogous to the deployment of nuclear powered submarines and aircraft carriers in the 1950s — and said the Navy plans to equip 15 destroyers and three cruisers with the technology “by the end of next year.” That would not be the end of the effort, he said.

“The DDG modernization program is funded to add BMD capability to the remaining 47 destroyers, and we will be examining options (to add BMD to the) remaining cruisers in POM-10 (program objective memorandum),” he said at a Jan. 15 naval symposium.

The upgrades would be one component of a larger modernization effort, Guillory said.

“My surface warfare vision includes modernizing the current fleet of Aegis cruisers and destroyers — the bulk of battleships — for the next 25 years,” he said (Dan Taylor, Inside Missile Defense, Jan. 30 ).