Fighting Over Ballistic Missile Defenses

A Standard Missile (SM-3) is launched from the USS Decatur, an Aegis combat system-equipped destroyer, during a Missile Defense Agency ballistic missile flight test in June 2007. Within minutes, the SM-3 intercepted a separating ballistic missile threat target that was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. This was the first such test conducted from a ballistic missile defense equipped-U.S. Navy destroyer. The objective is to develop the...