Washington Examiner:
Missile defense advocates are still basking in the glow of yesterday’s successful test of the U.S newest interceptor, the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA. The interceptor missile fired from Hawaii was able to hit a target missile hundreds of miles away which was designed to mimic an Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM), of the kind that North Korea might fire toward Guam or Iran toward Europe.
“There was a plethora of firsts for the SM-3 Block IIA from this test,” writes Riki Ellison, of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, including “the first successful intercept from a land-based Aegis Ashore Site, first successful intercept of an Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile, and first successful intercept from Engage on Remote.”
The target missile target was three to four times the range of the last intercept test and shows the Aegis Ashore sites in Europe will be able defend against Iranian missiles and future sites in Japan from North Korean ballistic missiles, Ellison says.
