U.S. Destroys Fake Ballistic Missle in Test

A U.S. Navy warship on Wednesday fired on and brought down a fake ballistic missile during a test near Hawaii, the Defense Department announced.

The guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie identified and monitored a mock short-range ballistic missile that took off at 5:25 p.m. local time from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai.The vessel, carrying second-generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense technology, fired a Standard Missile 3 interceptor that struck and eliminated the target, according to a Pentagon press release.

"Initial indications are that all components performed as designed," the Pentagon said. "Program officials will assess and evaluate system performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test."

This was the third successive trial of the Aegis BMD 4.0 system and the SM-3 Block 1B in which ballistic missile targets were destroyed. Overall, the Aegis technology has taken out a target in 25 of 31 flight trials since 2002.

The Aegis system is intended to destroy short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the middle or end of flight using different versions of the Standard Missile interceptor.