Washington: 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, amidst 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 advanced BMD system will improve the kill
interception ratio against advanced threats," company
officials said.
The test firing of the new interceptor missile comes
after North Korea in open defiance of UN and Global pleas
recently fired a salvo of long range Taepodong and short range
missiles off the sea of Japan, posing a major threat to close
American allies like South Korea and Japan.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, August 01, 2009, 15:31