US Successfully Tests Missile Interceptor (Warning: Missile Pr0n)

By streiff | 7:00 PM on September 01, 2017

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This Aug. 29, 2017 photo provided by the Department of Defense shows a medium-range ballistic missile target is launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii. The U.S. military has shot down a medium range ballistic missile during a test off Hawaii. The Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai Island launched the target missile late Tuesday, Aug. 29. Sailors aboard the destroyer USS John Paul Jones tracked the target with radar and then fired an interceptor missile to shoot it down. The test comes amid ongoing North Korean ballistic missile tests. Earlier Tuesday (Latonja Martin/Department of Defense via AP)

The day after North Korea launched an IRBM over Japan, the US Missile Defense Agency announced it had successfully carried out a test of the Aegis-based component of the missile defense system.

A simulated ballistic missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii. As it began its descent it was intercepted by a Standard 6 missile fired from the USS John Paul Jones. The Standard-6 is launched from a vertical launch canister and has an unclassified speed of Mach 3.5. According to reports:

The principal objective of the launch was test to a new targeting software designed to enable the SM-6 to intercept a ballistic missile warhead descending from the upper atmosphere at extreme speed.

This makes the third time a Standard-6 has successfully a missile on terminal trajectory out of three tries with progressively more advanced targets.

An Aegis-based BMD component adds another layer of protection and, when dealing with a smallish nation like North Korea, it gives an excellent chance of interception during boost phase.

Now, as promised, Missile Pr0n: