“For first time, ship at sea brings down target in its final seconds of flight
The Associated Press
Updated: 3:55 a.m. ET May 25, 2006
HONOLULU – For the first time, a Navy ship at sea successfully shot down a long-range missile in its final seconds of flight, the military said Wednesday.
The test was seen as an important step toward giving ships the ability to shoot down weapons as they are about to hit their targets. Until now, the Standard Missile 2 was only launched from ships to intercept a long-range missile in the early or middle stage of flight.
For the test, a missile fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai was destroyed in its final stage by an SM-2 launched from USS Lake Erie.
The Navy already can shoot down a missile in its final stage with a Patriot Advanced Capability 3, or PAC-3, missile launched from land.
The experiment with the SM-2 could broaden a warship’s capability, said Rear Adm. Barry McCullough, director of surface warfare on the staff of the chief of naval operations.
The Pearl Harbor-based Lake Erie is equipped with technology that allows it to detect and track intercontinental ballistic missiles. Since 2004, U.S. warships with ICBM tracking technology have been patrolling the Sea of Japan, on the lookout for missiles from North Korea.
The U.S. military is installing missile tracking radar and interceptor missiles on 18 U.S. Pacific Fleet ships. It is also equipping underground silos in Alaska and California with interceptor missiles.”
It’ll be interesting to see if this is another press screwup. In at least one part they are confusing the SM-2 with the SM-3 but where the SM-3 has NO capability in the atmosphere maybe the gist of the story is true.
By: sferrin - 25th May 2006 at 20:41
Well bummer. I was hoping they’d done it with a Block IIIB but it looks like they used a “modified Block IV”. Hey, I know maybe they could call it a “Block IVA” :rolleyes: Block IVA was essentially going to fall between a THAAD and PAC-3. The range of THAAD but without the exoatmospheric capability. It ended up getting cancelled due to cost. I’m surprised that there are “significant numbers” of Block IV available though as I didn’t think they made that many. Maybe they just mean significant in relation to the number of SM-3s out there.
“WASHINGTON (NNS) — The U.S. Navy, in cooperation with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), successfully conducted a ballistic missile defense (BMD) demonstration May 24 involving the intercept of a target missile in the terminal phase (the last few seconds) of flight.
The test involved an Aegis cruiser modified to detect, control and engage a ballistic missile target with a modified Standard Missile – 2 (SM-2) Block IV. The Pearl Harbor-based Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) conducted the mission against a short-range target missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii.
It was the first sea-based intercept of a ballistic missile in its terminal phase.
The modified Aegis Weapon System and the modified SM-2 Block IV provided the firing ship the capability to guide the missile to achieve either a direct body-to-body hit between the interceptor and the threat or a near-direct hit where the high pressure, heat and fragments are placed on the threat by a blast fragmentation warhead.
This warhead is similar in concept to that used in the deployed Israeli Arrow system. In this test, the threat missile was completely destroyed by the combined effects of these two mechanisms.
“This is another example of the ongoing cooperative spirit between the Navy and the Missile Defense Agency,” said Rear Adm. Barry McCullough, director, Surface Warfare, on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations. “We believe it is an important step towards the desired end-state of a robust sea-based terminal ballistic missile defense capability, and it begins to meet an immediate near-term concern of our combatant commanders.”
“The only terminal phase program we currently have that is operational is the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3),” he added, “and considerations to put those aboard ships are still under review.”
There is currently no sea-based terminal ballistic missile defense capability. The Navy Area Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (TBMD) Program, had been under development, but was terminated in December 2001. In ballistic missile defense, the modified Aegis Weapon System, with a modified SM-2 Block IV missile provides a near term, limited emergency capability against a very specific segment of the ballistic missile threat. The Navy and MDA consider it vital to develop a more robust capability for terminal ballistic missile defense of the joint sea base and friendly force embarkation points ashore.
“There is a significant number of SM-2 Block IV missiles available, which may be modified and deployed on Navy ships modified to perform a BMD mission,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry “Trey” Obering, Missile Defense Agency irector. “While talking with the Navy and the combatant commanders, on how and when, we might be able to make that happen. MDA will continue to improve its development of the midcourse Aegis sea-based ballistic missile defense capability, which utilizes the Standard Missile – 3 (SM-3), and has successfully achieved six intercepts in seven flight tests.”
Both the SM-2 Block IV and the SM-3 were developed by the Raytheon Missile Systems of Tucson, Ariz.
The Aegis Weapon System, the basis of the weapon system used in this test and in Aegis BMD ships, was developed by Lockheed Martin of Moorestown, N.J.”
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May 25, 2006 at 11:28 am