Context

At the end of last week, the United States successfully tested the missile defense system being created. As explained by the US Defense Missile Defense Agency, this was the most difficult flight test within the program. We are talking about intercepting an intermediate-range ballistic missile using the Aegis sea-based multi-purpose anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) over the Pacific Ocean. The target rocket launched on Friday in a northeast direction from a test site on the Kwajalein Atoll, located 6.4 thousand km from the west coast of the United States. Its launch was detected by a mobile radar tracking station on Wake Island in the North Pacific Ocean. Information from this radar was transmitted to the C2-BMC automated command system, and from there to the Aegis-equipped destroyer O'Kane, which was located west of Hawaii. Based on the data received, the destroyer’s onboard system developed a fire control solution and fired an SM-3 interceptor missile at the target “about 11 minutes after its launch.” After this, the destroyer O'Kane's own radar also began tracking the target and transmitting the necessary information to the interceptor missile until destruction. Let us recall that on December 16, another test of one of the main components of the missile defense system - a silo-based interceptor - ended in failure. An anti-missile missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base failed to intercept a training warhead over the Pacific Ocean.

Olga Berezintseva

The Pentagon successfully tested a missile defense system