Missile test to try double strike off Kauai
The Navy is aiming for another first tomorrow when it tries simultaneously to knock down dummy ballistic and cruise missiles off the coast of Kauai.
In its last eight missile launches, a Navy cruiser has been able to shoot down seven dummy missiles.
This time the Pearl Harbor-based cruiser Lake Erie, outfitted with the Aegis ballistic missile defense weapon system, will attempt to detect and attack a dummy ballistic missile fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands on Kauai's north shore and a cruise missile dropped from a military aircraft.
U.S. NAVY / FEBRUARY 2005
An SM-3 missile is launched from the USS Lake Erie in a test of its ballistic missile defense capability. The Navy has been able to shoot down seven of eight dummy missiles.
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The Lake Erie will use its SPY-1B radar to track both dummy missiles and try to knock down the ballistic missile with an SM3 missile and the cruise missile with an SM-2. The Lake Erie has been involved in six of the previous seven flight tests. The cruiser used in the eighth test in June was the USS Shiloh, based in San Diego.
Also participating in the exercise will be an Aegis-equipped destroyer and a Royal Netherlands Navy frigate -- the first time an allied military unit of a European nation has joined the exercise.
Chris Taylor, missile defense agency spokesman, said three U.S. cruisers and three destroyers are now equipped with the special radar and ballistic missile defense system.
By 2009, 10 Pacific Fleet destroyers and two from the Atlantic Fleet will be upgraded and armed with the sophisticated weapons system, Taylor said.
The missile interceptor is part of the Missile Defense Agency's multibillion-dollar program to protect the United States and its allies from an enemy missile attack.