WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Navy will deploy a destroyer equipped with the Aegis combat system in the Sea of Japan in September to help build a missile defense network against possible attacks from countries such as North Korea, Navy Secretary Gordon England said Monday.
"As part of the president's directive to accelerate the fielding of a BMD (ballistic missile defense) initial defensive operations capability . . . the navy will deploy in the Sea of Japan, beginning this September and on a virtually continuous basis thereafter, a guided missile destroyer to serve as a long-range surveillance and tracking platform," England said in a speech in Washington.
"This means that in just six months, we will have queuing and target data from this region of the world that can be instantaneously shared with command and control and ground-based elements of our layered defense system," he said.