U.S. NAVY A new Standard Missile-3 was launched yesterday from the Pearl Harbor-based cruiser USS Lake Erie in the Pacific Ocean.

Navy missile aces test

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By Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.com

BARKING SANDS, Kauai >> For the third straight time, a missile fired from hundreds of miles offshore from the cruiser USS Lake Erie destroyed a target rocket launched from the Navy's Pacific Missile Range on western Kauai.

Yesterday's test was the most difficult trial yet for the Aegis BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) system.

In previous tests the new missile knocked down targets as they re-entered Earth's atmosphere. Yesterday, it hit a missile while it was still climbing.

"Three and a half minutes after the target was launched, it was toast," said Chris Taylor, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency. "The Lake Erie had a window of only 70 to 85 seconds to detect the target and launch the missile."

The Lake Erie is an Aegis cruiser stationed at Pearl Harbor. Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers have highly sophisticated anti-aircraft tracking and targeting equipment. The Lake Erie has been fitted with special computer systems to test the new missile.

Millions of dollars have been spent to upgrade the Pacific Missile Range's tracking and telemetry equipment for the tests.

Yesterday's launch was the seventh test of the new missile, which is an upgraded version of the Navy's Standard Missile long used for air defense on Navy ships.

The missile is designed to protect both ships and land areas from medium- and long-range hostile missiles.

Five of the seven tests have been a success. At least five more tests are scheduled off Kauai through 2005 before the missile is deployed to ships throughout the Navy.

Meanwhile, plans are going ahead to begin testing the THAAD (Theater High-Altitude Air Defense) missile, the Army's new air defense missile, beginning in 2004 at the Pacific Missile Range. At least nine test flights are planned.

The THAAD missile originally was expected to be tested at the Army's missile range at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye was instrumental in convincing the Army to move the tests to Kauai. Officials from the Army's Redstone Arsenal were at the Kauai base yesterday to view the Navy test.