Armed with the Aegis Combat System, Arleigh Burkes are a multi-mission guided missile destroyer that can alternatively serve in missile defense, anti-submarine warfare and counter-piracy capacities explained Bryan Clark, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), a DC-based think tank. “The Arleigh Burkes, especially the new ones, are the front line ship that the Navy uses for the bulk of its missile defense and security cooperation type missions,” said Clark. “The Aegis Weapons System is fundamentally a missile defense system, so the Arleigh Burkes are really doing the mission today that they were originally envisioned to do.”
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