Ship Self-Defense System

The Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS) is a combat system specifically designed for anti-air defense of aircraft carriers, and most other non-Aegis United States Navy combat ships. It coordinates several legacy shipboard systems as well as major acquisition programs. Multi-sensor integration, parallel processing and the coordination of hard and soft kill capabilities in an automated, doctrine-based response to the ASCM threats are the cornerstones of the SSDS.

The SSDS system coordinates all the ship's existing sensors, self-defense weapons and countermeasures into a unified, distributed, open-architecture system. It provides the ship with automated and rapid-reacting anti-air defenses, aimed particularly at countering the sea-skimming anti-ship missile threat. It is largely based on commercial off-the-shelf systems.

The automated integration of these sensor and weapon systems, which have traditionally been stand-alone units, greatly shortens the detect-to-engage cycle.