Sea-Based Missile Defenses Score Test Success

A U.S. destroyer shot down two missile targets yesterday in a successful test of the Navy’s Aegis missile defense system near Hawaii, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Dec. 8, 2006).

Defending against two simultaneous mock attacks, the USS Lake Erie launched interceptor missiles at a ballistic missile heading toward a “friendly nation” and a cruise missile targeting the ship itself.  Both missiles were destroyed, according to the Navy.

The test was the eighth success in 10 attempts and the first time two targets were destroyed in a simultaneous engagement, AP reported.  A previous twin-target test failed in December.

The tests “give us confidence if we have to do this in the real world that we can do it,” said Rear Adm. Alan Hicks, director of the Aegis program.

Six ships in the U.S. Pacific fleet are now equipped with missile defenses and 10 more are scheduled to have full interception capabilities by 2009, AP reported.  In addition, two Atlantic fleet ships are due to outfitted by 2009 (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, April 26).

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