Navy shoots down two in missile defense test

Honolulu Advertiser:

The Missile Defense Agency and Navy for the first time shot down two simulated ballistic missile targets yesterday off Kaua'i as the U.S. military heads toward a 2009 goal for operational use.

The latest "hit to kill" intercept test marked the 10th and 11th successful intercepts, out of 13 targets, for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense program, the sea-based component of the nation's still-developing missile defense program, officials said.

The shoot-down was conducted by the Pearl Harbor-based cruiser USS Lake Erie. At 6:12 p.m., a target missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands. Moments later, a second identical target was launched.

The Lake Erie's Aegis weapons system detected and tracked the targets. About two minutes later, Lake Erie's crew fired two SM-3 missiles, and two minutes after that, they successfully intercepted the targets outside the Earth's atmosphere more than 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles northwest of Kaua'i.

A Japanese destroyer, the JS Kongo, also participated in the flight test as a training exercise in preparation for the first ballistic missile live-fire intercept test by a Japanese ship, scheduled for December.

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The Missile Defense Agency and Navy are modifying 15 destroyers and three cruisers to have Aegis ballistic missile defense capabilities.

Sixteen of the 18 Aegis ships with missile shoot-down capability will be based in the Pacific. At least four will be based at Pearl Harbor, including the cruisers Lake Erie and Port Royal, and destroyers Russell and Hopper.

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These successful test would probably never be held if Al Gore had been elected President or John Kerry for that matter. Democrats have always opposed missile defense. I think it is because the "scientific consensus" is that it want work. That is the problem with the "scientist" that the Democrats prefer to listen to on missile defense and global warming.

Not only are these successful test bad news for Democrats, they are also bad news for rogue states.

I would like to see the Navy develop a lift phase system also which would eliminate the possibility of the system being spoofed with dummy warheads. Perhaps this system already does that by engaging the missile before it can deploy warheads. That is not clear from this story.

Hat tip to Larwyn.