Missile Defense Watch: Successful Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense “Hit to Kill” Intercept Flight Test
AFP: Successful intercept claimed in US missile defense test
A US Navy Aegis cruiser simultaneously intercepted a ballistic missile and a target simulating a hostile fighter aircraft in a test over the Pacific, the Pentagon said.
“The test demonstrated the USS Lake Erie’s ability to engage a ballistic missile threat and defend itself from attack at the same time,” the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency said on Thursday.
The Lake Eerie is one of a growing fleet of US warships equipped with advanced radars and high-speed missiles capable of intercepting short and medium range ballistic missiles.
In the test Thursday near Hawaii, the cruiser used a Standard Missile-3 Block IA missile to intercept a target missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii.
At the same time, a US Navy aircraft launched a target designed to mimic a high performance fighter aircraft attacking the Lake Eerie, which engaged it with an SM-2 missile.
The ballistic missile target was intercepted 100 miles (160 kilometers) above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles (402 kilometers) northwest of Kauai, marking the system’s eighth successful intercept in 10 flight tests, the agency said.
The Missile Defense Agency’s Press Release is here.
This picture released by the US Defense Department shows a standard missile-2 being launched from the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie as part of a US Navy missile defense demonstration off the Hawaiian island of Kauai, May 2006. The USS Lake Erie simultaneously intercepted a ballistic missile and a target simulating a hostile fighter aircraft in a test over the Pacific, the Pentagon said.
Here are some additional videos of the test:
Remember the Leftys and Democrats who opposed and continue to oppose the program? Some are still around – Senators Carl Levin, Slow Joe Biden and John Kerry.
Now, what do they say?
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