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Smoke on the Water

April 3, 2023
A Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) Dual II with Software Upgrade (SWUP) is launched from the USS Daniel Inouye (DDG 118) off the coast of the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii as part of Flight Test Aegis Weapon System 31 Event 1a (FTM-31 E1a), March 30, 2023, Credit: Missile Defense Agency

“Right now the international system is under stress for the first time the United States is facing two major nuclear powers whose vital national security interests is in competition with the United States. Both the People’s Republic of China and Russia have the means to threaten our interests and our way of life but war with neither one is neither inevitable nor imminent.” – General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Rayburn Building Room 2118, March 29, 2023.

Last Friday, March 30, in the middle of the Pacific, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the U.S. Navy successfully intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) with a SM-6 interceptor from one of its 70 US Navy Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Ships – the USS DANIEL INOUYE (DDG 118). The MDA test using a salvo launch of two SM–6 Dual II missiles and the Aegis Baseline 9.C2.0 (BMD 5.1) system destroyed the target in the terminal phase of flight. This successful test by MDA from an Aegis BMD Ship platform and using the multi mission SM-6 that is capable of Ballistic Missile Defense, Surface Strike (anti-Ship), Cruise and Air Missile Defense, comes at a fortuitous time for our nation, our navy, and our allies. This unique, truly integrated air and missile defense system and its projected powerful capability defends U.S. naval forces globally against today’s most challenging threats. This capability will be an integrated part of the missile defense of Guam.

The SM-6 delivered to the Navy on its initial mission to provide anti-air warfare support to the U.S. Navy by engaging manned and unmanned aircraft attacks and cruise missiles. Today the SM-6 is three missiles in one. It’s the only weapon in the world that can perform anti-air warfare, ballistic missile defense and anti-surface warfare missions.

We congratulate the Missile Defense Agency, the crew of the USS Daniel Inouye, the defense industry team and the Pacific Missile Range Facility and all involved with this achievement that continues to make our nation safer and the world safer.

The Threat Set is Smoke on the Water

Click here to view the MDA test

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Mission Statement

MDAA’s mission is to make the world safer by advocating for the development and deployment of missile defense systems to defend the United States, its armed forces and its allies against missile threats.

MDAA is the only organization in existence whose primary mission is to educate the American public about missile defense issues and to recruit, organize, and mobilize proponents to advocate for the critical need of missile defense. We are a non-partisan membership-based and membership-funded organization that does not advocate on behalf of any specific system, technology, architecture or entity.

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