The Aegis system is a state-of-the-art computerized system that links the ship's powerful phased array radar and weapons systems to detect, track and engage over 100 aircraft and cruise missiles simultaneously.

The possible sale would include a Joint Tactical Information Distribution System, which would allow it to greatly expand its "battle picture" by plugging into a far-flung network of similarly equipped Japanese or US Navy ships.

The Navy has been working on ways to use networks of Aegis warships to track and shoot down short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.

It also has fielded a new capability that ties together warships, aircraft carriers and surveillance aircraft in a single network in which one ship can fire anti-aircraft missiles at targets tracked by the radars of other ships or aircraft.

"It is vital to the US national interest to assist Japan to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability, which will contribute to an acceptable military balance in the area," the Pentagon said in a statement.

This would be the fifth Aegis system that Japan has acquired for its warships since 1988.

"The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as 578 million dollars," the Pentagon said.

The package would include an undersea combat system, an MK-34 gun and a friend-or-foe aircraft identification system, as well as the Aegis system and Joint Tactical Information Distribution System.

"Installation of the Aegis combat system on ships of the Japan maritime self-defense force will provide enhanced capabilities to Japan in providing for defense of its crucial sea lines of communications," the Pentagon statement said.

"Aegis will be the keystone in Japan's effort to upgrade its anti-air warfare capability," it said.

Aegis Mark II
Meanwhile in related news, the US Navy awarded Monday a team led by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems a 2.879 billion dollar contract to design the DD(X) destroyer, a new generation of warships that will eventually replace the Aegis destroyer.

The Northrop Grumman proposal beat out a competing bid by a team led by General Dynamics.

"It was very close," said John Young, assistant secretary of the Navy for Research Development and Acquisition.

After a strategy review last year, the new administration decided to cancel a program to develop a new generation destroyer called the DD-21. It then recast it as an experimental program to design the first of a family future surface warships, including destroyers and cruisers.

Young said officials were still reviewing Navy requirements for the new ship, which is being designed as a replacement for the Aegis destroyers that now dominate the fleet.

The navy liked that the Northrop Grumman proposal included automated launches of rigid hull boats for special operations from the ship's stern, room in the aft section for two helicopter pads, and missile vertical launch systems on the side of the ship, he said.

The vertical launch systems would be designed so that even if the ship were hit by a round causing a missile to detonate, the blast would be deflected away from the ship, he said.

The Northrop Grumman plan calls for an initial crew size of 125. The DD-21 program had set a crew of 95 as the goal.

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