MDA to Use Destroyer USS John Finn for Defense-of-Hawaii Missile Intercept Test

August 6, 2020

USNI News

The Missile Defense Agency is nearing its planned defense-of-Hawaii test event with an Arleigh Burke destroyer and a Standard Missile-3 Block IIA, to prove the ship can serve as a back-up to ground-based homeland defense systems if needed.

The FTM-44 flight test, which was planned for May but postponed due to COVID-19-related restrictions, would prove that the SM-3 IIA could go beyond its originally designed scope and be used to stop an intercontinental ballistic missile, MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill said in a briefing online this week. If successful, the destroyer and SM-3 IIA pairing would add another layer to the layered homeland defense model the MDA is developing.

An ICBM target is on station on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, and Pearl Harbor-based USS John Finn (DDG-113) is ready to conduct the test, Hill said.

He did not specify when the test would take place but said that it’s congressionally mandated to happen by the end of the year and that MDA and the Navy are making final adjustments based on ongoing COVID restrictions.

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