Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Navy and the Missile Defense Agency celebrated the official "light off" of the Aegis Ashore system for Romania on Oct. 24., representing the system's operational readiness.

This system, along with its re-locatable deckhouse, will be deployed to Romania in 2015 as part of the administration's European Phased Adaptive Approach for ballistic missile defense (BMD). The team will be conducting full acceptance testing before shipments to Romania begin next year.

The ceremony marked the second system "light off" in less than six months for the joint team. The first Aegis Ashore system is preparing for its first live test next year at the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.

Aegis Ashore, which uses the newest generation of BMD, known as BMD 5.0, is an evolution of proven sea-based Aegis BMD capabilities and uses innovative adaptations for a land-based environment.