Aegis missile defence success.

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has announced the successful completion of a multiple simultaneous engagement involving two ballistic missile targets on 6 November. This was MDA's latest "hit to kill" intercept flight test conducted jointly with the US Navy off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. For the first time, the operationally realistic test involved two unitary "non-separating" targets, meaning that the target's warheads did not separate from their booster rockets. This was the 32nd and 33rd successful "hit-to-kill" intercepts since 2001.

Designated as Flight Test Standard Missile-13 (FTM-13), it marked the tenth and eleventh successful intercepts, of thirteen targets in twelve scheduled flight tests for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program, a sea-based component of the Agency's Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Aegis BMD is designed to intercept and destroy short to intermediate-range ballistic missile threats. The mission was completed by the cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70), using the tactically certified 3.6 Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense shipboard weapon system and the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IA interceptor.

At approximately 6:12 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time (11:12 p.m. EST), a target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. Moments later, a second, identical target was launched from the PMRF. The USS Lake Erie's Aegis BMD Weapon System detected and tracked the targets and developed fire control solutions. Approximately two minutes later, the USS Lake Erie s crew fired two SM-3 missiles, and minutes later they successfully intercepted the targets outside the earth s atmosphere more than 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles northwest of Kauai. The intercepts used "hit to kill" technology, meaning that the targets were destroyed when the missiles collided directly with the targets.

A Japanese destroyer also participated in the flight test. Stationed off Kauai and equipped with the certified 3.6 Aegis BMD weapon system, the guided missile destroyer JS Kongo performed long-range surveillance and tracking exercises. The Kongo used the test as a training exercise in preparation for the first ballistic missile intercept test by a Japanese ship planned for later this year. This event marked the fourth time an allied military unit has participated in a US Aegis BMDS test. The Aegis Weapon System is currently deployed on 83 ships around the globe with more than 20 additional ships planned or under contract. In addition to the US and Japan, Aegis is the maritime weapon system of choice for South Korea, Norway, Spain and Australia. Japan began installation of Aegis BMD in its Kongo-class Aegis destroyers in 2006.