U.S. demos Standard Missile 3 in Europe

The U.S. Navy reports it has performed the first at sea ballistic missile defense firing of a Standard Missile 3 in Europe.

The firing this month took place during three weeks of at sea demonstrations by allied navies at the Maritime Theater Missile Defense Forum in Faslane, Scotland.

The MTMD Forum, started in 1999, is to facilitate and improve interoperability and enhance individual and collective maritime integrated air and missile defense capabilities.

"Our ships and systems performed superbly," said Our ships and systems performed superbly," said Hill. "Our approach to ASD15 was to build a little, test a little and learn a lot... we did just that and we are better individually and collectively for our effort."

During the demonstrations Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and United States conducted surface-to-air missile firing events; France, Norway and Britain performed radar and combat systems development trials.

The U.S. firing of a Standard Missile 3 was conducted with Spanish and Dutch ships transmitting missile launch cues to a U.S. guided missile destroyer.