Navy to conduct BARKING SANDS, Kauai >> The fourth test flight of the Navy's Theater Defense Missile is scheduled to take place Friday at the Pacific Missile Range on Kauai.
missile test off
Kauai next week
A ship will fire an anti-missile
missile at a target rocket
launched from KauaiBy Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comThe test is the last in a series to evaluate the Standard Missile 3, which is designed to knock down incoming hostile rockets. Two of the three test flights have been successful.
The missile will be fired from the Pearl Harbor-based cruiser USS Lake Erie more than 100 miles offshore at an Aries target rocket launched from Kauai. Military officials said it is likely the two missiles will collide, but that is not a goal of Friday's test.
The use of a target missile in this test is only to evaluate the tracking equipment and computer software installed on the Lake Erie. Testing of the missile's ability to hit target rockets is scheduled to begin later this year, also off Kauai.
The Theater Defense Missile is designed to protect Navy ships and troops and civilians ashore by hitting hostile missiles high above the atmosphere. Friday's test originally was scheduled for last summer, then rescheduled for the fall. The Navy has given no explanation for the delays.
A shorter-range version, the Area Defense Missile, was shelved last month by the Defense Department because of cost overruns. The Area Defense Missile was being tested at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and had been expected to be brought to Kauai next year.
The anti-missile missiles are cousins of the much more powerful rockets being tested at the Army's Kwajalein Missile Range to hit intercontinental ballistic missiles fired from California.