U.S. Navy Announces A Successful Anti-Missile Test

The USS Monterey military vessel is seen docked in the Black Sea harbour of Constanta, 250 km (155 miles) east of Bucharest June 7, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Bogdan Cristel

U.S. Aegis System Zaps Cruise, Ballistic Missile Targets In Test -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The U.S. Aegis missile defense system on Thursday simultaneously destroyed two cruise missile targets and one ballistic missile target in a test conducted by a U.S. Navy destroyer off the coast of Hawaii, according to sources familiar with the test.

The test validated a new upgrade of the Aegis missile defense system built by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), and two different missiles built by Raytheon Co (RTN.N), according to the sources who were not authorized to speak publicly.

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More News On A Successful U.S. Aegis Missile Defense System Test

US Shoots Down 3 Missile Targets in Hawaii Test -- AP
U.S. Tests Missile Defenses For Sites In Romania, Poland -- Radio Free Europe
US knocks down ballistic, cruise missile targets in complex Aegis system test -- RT
SM-3, SM-2s take on ballistic, cruise missile targets during simulated missile 'raid' attack exercise -- CNN

US Successfully Launches A Shore-Based Missile Interceptor Off Hawaii

US Test-Fires Aegis Missile Defence System Destined For Europe -- The Guardian

Test takes place in Hawaii of interceptor that will be stationed first in Romania as part of US-Nato system criticised by Russia

The United States has announced the first live firing test of a missile interceptor destined to be stationed initially in Romania and then elsewhere in Europe.

The test of the system, known as Aegis, comes amid tensions between Nato and Russia over the annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine.

The Obama administration's current European Phased Adaptive Approach calls for the first Aegis Ashore site to be operational in Romania in 2015, with a second site to follow in Poland in 2018.

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More News On The US Successfully Launching A Shore-Based Missile Interceptor Off Hawaii

Aegis Ashore System Conducts Successful Flight Test -- US Department of Defense
U.S. tests enhanced Aegis system, fires SM-3 missile onshore -- Reuters
U.S. reports successful NATO missile defence test -- AP
U.S. Tests Missile System Bound for Romania -- WSJ
Military flight tests components of Aegis Ashore -- UPI
Watch Raytheon's Alabama-made Standard Missile-3 light up the sky in its first land-based test -- al.com
US Successfully Launches Shore-Based Missile Interceptor -- IBTimes
US tests cornerstone of European antimissile shield -- RT
With Successful Test-Firing Of SM-3 Missile US Inches Closer To Advanced Defense Against Ballistic Missiles Attacks -- Inquisitr
US Aegis Ashore launches first SM-3 Block IB interceptor -- IHS Janes 360
Aegis Ashore achieves major test milestone for worldwide ballistic missile defense system -- Physorg

Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Scores Another Direct Hit

Aegis BMD Passes Key Test; Multiple Launches At Multiple Targets Next -- Breaking Defense

At 1:30 am this morning – 7:30 pm yesterday Hawaiian time — the Navy’s newest missile defense system marked its second successful shootdown in a month. Under what Lockheed Martin called an “operationally realistic scenario” – more on that in a moment – the USS Lake Erie picked up the target with its Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense “version 4.0.2” fire control system and launched a Raytheon Standard Missile-3 Block IB to blow it out of the Pacific sky.

Code-named FTM-22, the test was one more step towards an anti-missile system that could make North Korea or Iran think twice before launching their relatively small arsenals of ballistic missiles. And that’s the principal reason for the missile defense program: to deter those two countries.

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My Comment: I concur with this analysis. Shooting down a massive missile launch from Russia or China may not be in the cards .... but this system is effective against smaller countries with limited missile capabilities .... Iran and North Korea being the two principle countries that everyone is looking at.

Some More News On The Navy's BMD Scramble

From In From The Cold:

Last September, when President Obama announced plans for a revised missile defense shield for Western Europe, we predicted potential problems. Among them: converting enough Naval vessels for the BMD role to meet global commitments.

With Mr. Obama's decision to scrap missile interceptors in Poland--and limit deployment of land-based defensive missiles in Alaska and California--much of the defensive burden fell on the U.S. Navy, and ships equipped with the Aegis battle management system and SM-3 interceptor missiles.

While the Aegis/SM-3 combination is (arguably) the world's best missile defense system, those assets are limited. Fielding the required number of ships for the BMD mission will be a challenge, particularly in the near-term. As we noted last fall:

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U.S. Navy Needs More Ships With A BMD Platform

Navy Surface ships with ballistic missile defense capabilities — like the cruiser Shiloh, above, firing a Standard Missile-3 during a 2006 test — will patrol the North Sea and the Mediterranean starting in 2011 to provide missile defense to Europe. NAVY

U.S. Navy Juggles Ships To Fill BMD Demands -- Defense News

No sooner did the Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) system become operational in 2008 than U.S. combatant commanders started asking for BMD-equipped ships to begin patrolling their areas.

Central Command needed a "shooter" in the northern Arabian Gulf. European Command wanted one in the eastern Mediterranean. Pacific Command already had Aegis ships with limited BMD capabilities on guard around Japan for a potential launch from North Korea.

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My Comment: This should not be a surprise .... the Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) system is a proven weapons platform that has performed exceptionally well in tests. With such a track record, it is only natural that U.S. combatant commanders would want this system in their arsenal.

Obama Missile Defense Plan Clears Hurdle

From Global Security Newswire:

WASHINGTON -- Despite Republican denunciations of President Obama's decision to revamp plans for missile defenses in Europe, the Senate last week quietly offered its formal acceptance of his shift to the near-term deployment of a sea-based system to protect the continent from the looming threat of Iranian short- and mid-range missiles.

By unanimous consent, the Senate adopted an amendment to the fiscal 2010 Military Construction Appropriations bill allowing the Pentagon to use $68.5 million in unspent fiscal 2009 missile defense funds to build a Hawaii test facility for the Navy's Aegis Weapons System, which is central to the president's plans.

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My Comment: What a difference a few decades can make. When President Reagan talked about missile defense systems 25 years ago, the media focused on this story for years, and were almost universally negative in their coverage.

President Obama makes an equally big and strategic move in missile defense .... relying on the Aegis system to defend us against missile attacks .... and there is almost no coverage.

The Growing Aegis Naval Fleet

AEGIS-BMD: CG-70 launches SM-3

Awesome Aegis Ascendant -- Strategy Page

The U.S. government, encouraged by the high success rate (83 percent) of U.S. Navy Aegis equipped ships using SM-3 missiles to shoot down ballistic missiles, has decided to expand the number of SM-3 equipped ships. Just this year, the navy completed equipping 18 ships with the Aegis anti-missile system, and that number may soon more than triple.

This is part of a larger trend. Last year, the navy cancelled its expensive new DDG-1000 class of destroyers, partly because these ships were built to support amphibious and coastal operations, and did not have a radar that could easily be converted to use SM-3 anti-missile missiles. The DDG-1000 also cost 2-3 times more than Aegis destroyers. With missile defense seen as a higher priority than providing new amphibious and coastal combat capability, the DDG-1000 was killed, and the money saved could be used to build more Aegis destroyers, and convert more current destroyers and cruisers to use SM-3.

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My Comment: Startegy Page provides an easy to read summary on the development of the Aegis system, and its role in missile defense.

The Expansion Of The Aegis Program

Since 2005, Aegis has performed successful testing of sea-based intercepts; tracking multiple targets; intercept of targets where the warhead was separating from the booster; and engagement with ballistic missile and cruise missile targets. Photo from Army-Technology

Awesome Aegis Ascendant -- Strategy Page

October 4, 2009: The U.S. government, encouraged by the high success rate (83 percent) of U.S. Navy Aegis equipped ships using SM-3 missiles to shoot down ballistic missiles, has decided to expand the number of SM-3 equipped ships. Just this year, the navy completed equipping 18 ships with the Aegis anti-missile system, and that number may soon more than triple.

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My Comment: I remembered how this technology was scorned at and ridiculed 25 years ago .... and today .... a marvel of what technology and science are capable of.

Concerns About The New Missile Defense Plan Are Now Being Raised

A Standard Missile Three (SM-3) is launched from the guided missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67) during a joint U.S. Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Navy ballistic missile flight test in the Pacific Ocean, June 22, 2006. REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Handout

Questions Arise on Backbone of New Missile Defense Plan -- Global Security Newswire

Some observers question whether the weapons that would be central to the Obama administration's new missile defense plan for Europe can be trusted to function during a conflict, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 30).

Washington has replaced the Bush administration drive to deploy long-range missile interceptors in Poland with an initiative to field successive sea- and land-based versions of the Navy's Standard Missile 3. The system would be intended to protect U.S. allies and forces in Europe against short- and medium-range missiles, which are now seen as the looming threat from Iran.

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More News On The New Missile Defense Plan

New missile defense plan bets on Navy interceptors -- AP
Russia to respond to U.S. revised missile defense plans -- China View
Pentagon Officials Say Missile Defense Shift 'Not About Russia' -- FOX News
Russia still cool on new U.S. anti-missile scheme -- Reuters
Russia Concerned Over Revised U.S. Missile Defense Plan -- FOX News
Russia prepares response to revised U.S. missile shield plans -- RIA Novosti

Technical Flaws In The Obama Missile Defense Plan

An SM-3 is launched from the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie as part of the Missile Defense Agency's latest Ballistic Missile Defense System test to defeat a medium-range ballistic missile threat. The missile, part of the Aegis Weapon System, intercepted a target launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the Hawaiian island of Kauai Dec. 11. This was the fourth successful intercept for Aegis BMD and SM-3. The test included evaluation of the long-range surveillance and tracking capabilities of two Navy ships as well as effective communications between the ships and command and control units. Navy photo.

From The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists:

Article Highlights

The Obama administration should be commended for changing course on the Bush administration's plan to deploy missile defense installations in Eastern Europe.
However, its alternative--using the existing ship-based Aegis defense system to protect Europe from a possible Iranian missile strike--also uses technology that's unproven.

Additionally, like the Bush plan, the Obama missile defense strategy could potentially embolden hawks in both Russia and China.

Last Thursday, the Obama administration announced its long-awaited decision on a European missile defense system against potential Iranian ballistic missiles. In short, it will shelve the Bush administration's plan for a defense against intercontinental-range missiles, and instead, it will field a system designed to intercept shorter-range missiles, on which Iran is making quicker progress.

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My Comment: A surprisingly easy to read article from a very technical and theoretical organization. If missile defense and Aegis systems is your thing, this is a good article to read.

The U.S. Navy Is Providing Strategic Air Defense In The Eastern Mediterranean

India's Sea Kings helicopters fly over USS. Higgins during the joint exercise between India and U.S. near the western Indian coastal state of Goa September 29, 2005. REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe

From Reuters:

ABOARD USS HIGGINS, Mediterranean Sea (Reuters) - He is trained to hunt submarines or pirates, launch Tomahawk cruise missiles at coastal targets and shoot down attacking planes. He can also enforce naval blockades and rescue vessels in distress.

Yet, on his first Mediterranean tour, Cmdr Carl Meuser may have another mission in mind, the kind the U.S. Navy has long performed off North Korea and Japan -- strategic air defense.

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Update: Security and Defense: Israel goes ballistic -- Jerusalem Post

My Comment: I am surprised to read that there are only 18 of these ships around the world .... I expected more. This is a good read on America's front line defense against missile attack.

Aegis Triumphant

AEGIS-BMD: CG-70 launches SM-3

From Strategy Page:

The U.S. Navy, capitalizing on the success of its SM3 anti-missile missile, wants to equip more ships with it. So far, the seagoing Aegis radar system has used SM-3s to knock down nearly 90 percent of the test missiles fired towards it. This includes shooting down a low flying space satellite. There are 18 U.S. Navy ships equipped with SM-3, and the navy would like enough money to equip all of its Aegis equipped ships (90) with the SM-3. This is expensive, as it costs a few million bucks to upgrade the Aegis radar and install the new software. And then there are the SM-3 missiles, which cost three million dollars each. The navy won't say how many SM-3 missiles are on each ship equipped to handle them, but it's probably something like at least a dozen. So to equip over 80 additional Aegis ships with SM-3 would cost over three billion dollars.

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My Comment: I remembered critics (25 years ago) saying that the idea of missiles knocking down other missiles was ridiculous, and that supporters of such a technology .... with Edward Teller being the outspoken scientist in support for developing this technology .... had to be ostracized and ridiculed (which they and President Reagan were).

Those pioneers who were confident that this technology will develop to what it is today are now gone, but their legacy and the fruits of their determination still lives. I am sure that 25 years from now .... the developments and progress that will be made will astound us even more.