MDA Exercise Test-Fires SM-3 with Aegis System

The Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Navy sailors test-fired a Standard Missile-3 in the Pacific Ocean Thursday with an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense 4.0. system

An SM-3 missile launched from the USS Lake Erie to intercept a target fired from a Kauai, Hawaii-based facility, the Defense Department said Friday.

Flight testing started in 2002 for the Aegis BMD program and this was the program’s 28th intercept in 34 attempts.

The USS Lake Erie detected and monitored the object flying northwest toward the Pacific Ocean using its built-in AN/SPY-1 radar and the SM-3 guided missile destroyed the target through a direct impact force, the Pentagon said.

This was SM-3’s fifth consecutive intercept along with the Aegis missile and program officials intend to examine the telemetry results and other data from the demonstration.