The San Diego-based destroyer USS John Finn successfully shot down a medium-range ballistic mission Friday in a test near Hawaii.
The destroyer’s Aegis Ballistic Defense System tracked a missile launched from Kauai and fired a Standard Missile-3 from one of the ship’s vertical launch tubes.
The target missile was successfully intercepted over the Pacific Ocean west of the Hawaiian Islands. The success came after two earlier failures involving the latest version of the Standard Missile-3.
“This was a superb accomplishment and key milestone for the SM-3 Block IIA return to flight,” said Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. “My congratulations to the entire team, including our sailors, industry partners, and allies who helped achieve this milestone.”
The SM-3 Block IIA is being developed cooperatively by the U.S. and Japan as part of a program to build a layered defense system capable of destroying attacking ballistic missiles in all phases of flight