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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, July 31, 2009

Navy ship shoots down target missile launched from Kauai


Advertiser Staff

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

A Standard Missile - 3 (SM-3) is launched from the USS Hopper (DDG 70) in the latest Missile Defense Agency (MDA) test in conjunction with the U.S. Navy. The missile intercepted a short-range ballistic missile target launched a few minutes earlier from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. It was the 19th successful intercept in 23 at-sea firings by the MDA's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program, the sea-based element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System. The USS Lake Erie (CG 70) and USS O'Kane (DDG 77) also participated in the exercise, detecting, tracking the target and conducting simulated engagements.

MDA and U.S. Navy photo

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A Pearl Harbor-based destroyer today shot down a simulated short-range ballistic missile launched from Barking Sands on Kaua'i as part of the ongoing development of a U.S. missile defense system, according to the military.

It was the 19th successful intercept out of 23 attempts for the ship-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system.
The Navy yesterday afternoon fired a short-range ballistic missile from the Kauaçi Test Facility at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands.
Three Navy ships — the cruiser USS Lake Erie and the destroyers USS Hopper and USS O’Kane — tracked the target. The Hopper fired a Standard Missile-3 interceptor, which scored a direct hit on the target missile about 5:44 p.m., four minutes after the target was launched, the military said.
Today’s exercise cost about $40 million, officials said.
The Aegis system is the mobile, sea-based component of the nation’s ballistic missile defense shield. It is intended to defeat short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles in midcourse flight with the Standard Missile-3, and short-range ballistic missiles in the terminal flight phase with the Standard Missile-2.
Eighteen Navy ships — three cruisers and 15 destroyers — are equipped with ballistic missile shoot-down capability. Sixteen of those ships are in the Pacific and two are in the Atlantic.