BARKING SANDS — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy sailors aboard USS John Finn on Friday conducted an intercept of a medium-range ballistic missile target with a Standard Missile-3 Block IIA missile during a flight test off the west coast of Hawaii.
BARKING SANDS — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy sailors aboard USS John Finn on Friday conducted an intercept of a medium-range ballistic missile target with a Standard Missile-3 Block IIA missile during a flight test off the west coast of Hawaii.
Agency officials are hailing it a success, including Pacific Missile Range Facility Capt. Vincent Johnson.
“I am extremely proud of the men and women at the Pacific Missile Range. Every mission is a team effort,” he said. “They are consummate professionals and truly world-class in the testing and training opportunities PMRF provides to the nation.”
The SM-3 Block IIA is being developed cooperatively by the U.S. and Japan and operates as part of the AEGIS Ballistic Missile Defense system.
The target missile was launched from PMRF on Friday. The USS John Finn detected and tracked the target missile with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar using the Aegis Baseline 9.C2 weapon system. Upon acquiring and tracking the target, the ship launched an SM-3 Block IIA guided missile, which intercepted the target.
“This was a superb accomplishment and key milestone for the SM-3 Block IIA return to flight,” said MDA Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves.
