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Test of US-Japanese missile interceptor fails

by Staff Writers Washington (AFP) June 22, 2017 AFP

The US Navy and the Japanese ministry of defense have unsuccessfully attempted to intercept a ballistic missile in a test of a jointly built system off Hawaii, the US military said Wednesday.

The two nations have been working together since 2006 to develop a variant of the Standard Missile-3, a ship-launched missile that operates as part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.

Tuesday evening's test saw a medium-range ballistic target launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Kauai, Hawaii, the US Missile Defense Agency said in a statement.

The USS John Paul Jones guided-missile destroyer detected and tracked the target missile with its onboard radar using Aegis.

"Upon acquiring and tracking the target, the ship launched an SM-3 Block IIA guided missile, but the missile did not intercept the target," the MDA said.

This was the fourth development flight test using an SM-3 IIA missile, and the second such intercept test.

The previous test, in February 2017, was successful.

According to the MDA, America has so far spent about $2.2 billion on the system and Japan about $1 billion.

The test comes amid heightened tensions around North Korea's continued advances in its ballistic missile program.