WASHINGTON: The US military said it succeeded in its “most challenging” missile intercept test yet, using Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co hardware to shoot down an intermediate-range ballistic target over the Pacific.
The Pentagon said the test showed it is on track to wrap up this year the first phase of a layered, multibillion-dollar antimissile shield in Europe against missiles that could be fired from Iran.
It also may be adapted to defend against North Korea, another focus of US antimissile efforts, and ultimately to add to the existing US ground-based defences.
The test on Friday west of Hawaii was the first time that Lockheed’s shipboard Aegis combat system had been used to intercept a target with a range greater than about 3,000-km, the Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency said. Dubbed Flight Test Standard Missile-15, it was also the first Aegis test to rely on missile tracking data gathered by a powerful on-shore radar station.
“The ability to use remote radar data to engage a threat ballistic missile greatly increases the battle space and defended area of the SM-3” interceptor missile built by Raytheon and used to destroy the target, the Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency said in a statement. Previous sea-based Aegis intercept tests have featured shorter-range targets.
This was the 21st successful intercept in 25 attempts for the Aegis programme since flight testing began in 2002, the agency said. Of all elements of the layered antimissile shield, it was the 45th successful intercept in 58 flight tests since 2001, the statement said.
The last two intercept tests of a US ground-based antimissile bulwark, managed by Boeing Co and aimed at protecting US soil from even longer-range missiles, have failed. President Barack Obama in September 2009 scrapped a George W Bush-era plan to build in Poland and the Czech Republic a European version of the ground-based shield already deployed in California and Alaska.
Instead, his Pentagon turned to the more flexible Aegis technology to adapt more readily to evolving threats and “geography of each region,” Navy Rear Admiral Archer Macy, head of the joint military staff’s antimissile office, said in congressional testimony on Wednesday.
The Pentagon said the test showed it is on track to wrap up this year the first phase of a layered, multibillion-dollar antimissile shield in Europe against missiles that could be fired from Iran.
It also may be adapted to defend against North Korea, another focus of US antimissile efforts, and ultimately to add to the existing US ground-based defences.
The test on Friday west of Hawaii was the first time that Lockheed’s shipboard Aegis combat system had been used to intercept a target with a range greater than about 3,000-km, the Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency said. Dubbed Flight Test Standard Missile-15, it was also the first Aegis test to rely on missile tracking data gathered by a powerful on-shore radar station.
“The ability to use remote radar data to engage a threat ballistic missile greatly increases the battle space and defended area of the SM-3” interceptor missile built by Raytheon and used to destroy the target, the Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency said in a statement. Previous sea-based Aegis intercept tests have featured shorter-range targets.
This was the 21st successful intercept in 25 attempts for the Aegis programme since flight testing began in 2002, the agency said. Of all elements of the layered antimissile shield, it was the 45th successful intercept in 58 flight tests since 2001, the statement said.
The last two intercept tests of a US ground-based antimissile bulwark, managed by Boeing Co and aimed at protecting US soil from even longer-range missiles, have failed. President Barack Obama in September 2009 scrapped a George W Bush-era plan to build in Poland and the Czech Republic a European version of the ground-based shield already deployed in California and Alaska.
Instead, his Pentagon turned to the more flexible Aegis technology to adapt more readily to evolving threats and “geography of each region,” Navy Rear Admiral Archer Macy, head of the joint military staff’s antimissile office, said in congressional testimony on Wednesday.
