Its biggest success the sea-based Aegiscombatsystem can trace its longevity mainly to the fact that the Navy was in charge rather than missile-defense proponents.
That is the site in Moorestown, New Jersey where the Navy tests the radars for its Aegiscombatsystem, the most capable air- and missile-defense system in the world.
All the legal constraints that had prevented use of sea-based systems in missile defense schemes disappeared, and engineers could begin thinking about exploiting the full operational potential of the Aegiscombatsystem.
The Navy built two classes of warships around the Aegiscombatsystem, beginning with the Ticonderoga class of cruisers in the 1980s and then the Arleigh Burke class of destroyers in the 1990s.
It was at this point that the role of the U.S. Navy in missile defense plans began to grow thanks, ironically, to its possession of a sea-based combatsystem called Aegis that had debuted only weeks before Reagan proposed his strategic defense initiative in 1983.