Civilian VIPs on Kauai
for Navy missile launchToday's display is the debut
of an upgraded guidance system
BARKING SANDS, Kauai >> The eighth in a series of tests of a missile designed to protect both ships and land areas from hostile rockets was scheduled for today at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on the west tip of Kauai.
The test shot will include a number of firsts, including the first time civilian VIPs have been invited to the base to watch the test. Gov. Linda Lingle will lead a delegation of about 30 guests described as "business and community leaders." As in the past, the news media have been barred from the test site.
Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell said the Navy wants to show off both its new missile and the economic importance of the Pacific Missile Range, one of the largest civilian employers on Kauai. About 500 engineers and technicians journey to Kauai for the tests, providing a major boost to the hotel and restaurant industries.
The Pacific Missile Range, with its 42,000 square miles of open sky and ocean outside commercial air and shipping lanes, has become the Navy's premier missile test site in recent years.
In addition to the current tests of the latest version of the Navy's Standard Missile, the U.S. Army will begin a series of tests of its new Theater High Altitude Air Defense missile system within two years. A published report in a scientific journal has stated the Navy will begin testing the latest version of its submarine-launched Trident intercontinental ballistic missile off Kauai in 2005 but Navy officials have refused to comment on the report.
Today's test will mark the debut of an upgraded guidance system for the Standard Missile 3 that is designed to make the missile more maneuverable.
The missile has a "kinetic kill" warhead, meaning it is designed to destroy an enemy rocket by colliding with it rather than using a large explosion to disable the enemy weapon. The missile has hit its target in each of the last three tests.
The target missiles are fired from the missile range on Kauai. The test missiles are aboard the Aegis Cruiser USS Lake Erie patrolling several hundred miles off Kauai.
Today's test also will be the first using two ships. The destroyer USS Russell, also equipped with the Navy's Aegis system for tracking airborne targets, will be sailing closer to Kauai and will detect the target missile first, feeding data to the USS Lake Erie until the cruiser can pick up the target on its own radar, according to Chris Taylor, spokesman for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, which is overseeing the development of all systems being designed by the services to knock down hostile rockets.
Today's scheduled test was to be the second of six involving increasingly more complex scenarios. The Navy is hoping to be able to begin issuing the new missile to the fleet by 2005.