US successfully conducts missile defence test
Washington (PTI): The US has successfully carried out a missile interception test with its state of the art Aegis Ballistic Missile Defence system (BMD) over the Pacific sea, near Hawaii island, amid a standoff with North Korea over Pyongyang's clandestine nuclear and missile programme.
The Aegis BMD-equipped ship, the USS Hopper, successfully tracked and intercepted a short range ballistic missile launched from the Kauai test facility on Thursday night, Lockheed martin, the makers of the BMD system said.
"The destroyer USS Hopper successfully guided the SM-3 interceptor to direct body-to-body hit, just two minutes after being fired from the ship," the officials said.
It was the 19th successful intercept out of 23 carried out by the interceptor missile.
US Naval sources said that the interceptor missile used was an upgraded Aegis BMD 4.0.1 system which is likely to be inducted into service in 2010.
The Hindu News Update Service
Washington (PTI): The US has successfully carried out a missile interception test with its state of the art Aegis Ballistic Missile Defence system (BMD) over the Pacific sea, near Hawaii island, amid a standoff with North Korea over Pyongyang's clandestine nuclear and missile programme.
The Aegis BMD-equipped ship, the USS Hopper, successfully tracked and intercepted a short range ballistic missile launched from the Kauai test facility on Thursday night, Lockheed martin, the makers of the BMD system said.
"The destroyer USS Hopper successfully guided the SM-3 interceptor to direct body-to-body hit, just two minutes after being fired from the ship," the officials said.
It was the 19th successful intercept out of 23 carried out by the interceptor missile.
US Naval sources said that the interceptor missile used was an upgraded Aegis BMD 4.0.1 system which is likely to be inducted into service in 2010.
The Hindu News Update Service
