It isn't easy to knock a missile out of the sky, especially one nearly 2,000 miles away.But the U.S. military says it has done just that, successfully completing its 'most challenging' missile intercept to date, using Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co hardware to shoot down an intermediate-range ballistic target over the Pacific.
The Pentagon said the test showed it is on track to wrap up this year the first phase of a layered, multibillion-dollar antimissile shield in Europe against missiles that could be fired from Iran.
It also may be adapted to defend against North Korea, and ultimately to add to the existing U.S. ground-based defenses.
The test on Friday west of Hawaii was the first time that Lockheed's shipboard Aegis combat system had been used to intercept a target with a range greater than 3,000 kms (1,864 miles), the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said.
Dubbed Flight Test Standard Missile-15, it was also the first Aegis test to rely on missile tracking data gathered by a powerful on-shore radar station.
The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said in a statement: 'The ability to use remote radar data to engage a threat ballistic missile greatly increases the battle space and defended area of the SM-3' interceptor missile built by Raytheon and used to destroy the target. Read More
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