U.S. tests new missile defense system
The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system was flight tested on board the USS Lake Erie (CG 70), resulting in "the first intercept of a short-range ballistic missile target over the Pacific Ocean" by the Navy's newest Missile Defense interceptor, the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block 1B, RIA Novosti informed.
The target missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, located on Kauai, Hawaii, at 8:18 p.m. Hawaiian Standard Time (10:18 GMT May 10).
The USS Lake Erie detected and tracked the missile with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar and launched the SM-3 Block IB interceptor.
"The kinetic warhead acquired the target, diverted into its path, and, using only the force of a direct impact, engaged and destroyed the threat in a hit-to-kill intercept," the MDA said.
Aegis BMD is the sea-based midcourse component of the MDA's Ballistic Missile Defense System and is designed to intercept and destroy short to intermediate-range ballistic missile threats.
The interceptor is an essential element of an anti-missile system the United States is building in and around Europe and is to be deployed in Romania by 2015.
