The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and U.S. Navy sailors aboard the USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) successfully conducted a complex missile defense flight test, resulting in the intercept of a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) target using Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) guided missiles during a test off the coast of Hawaii today.
John Paul Jones detected and tracked a target missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar, and onboard SM-6 missiles executed the intercept.
(See an earlier testing launch of a long-range ground-based interceptor is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base which successfully intercepted an intercontinental ballistic missile target launched from the U.S. Army’s Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. This was the first live-fire test event against an ICBM-class target., courtesy of the MDA and YouTube.)
“We are working closely with the fleet to develop this important new capability, and this was a key milestone in giving our Aegis BMD ships an enhanced capability to defeat ballistic missiles in their terminal phase,” said MDA Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves.
“We will continue developing ballistic missile defense technologies to stay ahead of the threat as it evolves.”
This test, designated Flight Test Standard Missile-27 Event 2 (FTM-27 E2), marks the second time that an SM-6 missile has successfully intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target and demonstrated the integrated capabilities of the Aegis Weapon System and how it has continually evolved to counter advanced threats.
Aegis BMD is the naval component of the Ballistic Missile Defense System.
MDA and the U.S. Navy cooperatively manage the Aegis BMD program.
Additional information about all elements of the ballistic missile defense system can be found here.
“The recent ballistic missile defense test off the coast of Hawaii demonstrates that Aegis can successfully execute complicated missions against a medium-range ballistic missile target,” said Paul Klammer, director, Aegis BMD, for Lockheed Martin.
“This latest test continues to demonstrate the cutting-edge capabilities and reliability of the Aegis Baseline 9 system.”
Deployed on U.S. Navy ships, Raytheon-built SM-6 delivers a proven over-the-horizon offensive and defensive capability by leveraging the time-tested Standard Missile airframe and propulsion system.
It’s the only missile that supports anti-air warfare, anti-surface warfare and sea-based terminal ballistic missile defense in one solution—and it’s enabling the U.S. and its allies to cost-effectively increase the offensive might of surface forces.
Raytheon has delivered more than 330 SM-6 missiles with continuing production and the U.S. Department of Defense has approved the sale of SM-6 to several allied nations.
