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COMMANDING OFFICER FIRED! Criminal Charges Coming?!

Navy captain’s yelling and public “humiliation” of her officers and crew was so severe and frequent — once for the mistake of pointing out dolphins swimming nearby the ship’s bridge — that sailors were afraid to bring bad news to her attention. That “fear culture” aboard the USS Lake Erie, a scathing Navy investigation found, could have created “a higher risk of having a safety or operational mishap” and an “unsafe command environment where sailors do not … exercise sound judgment.”… As the commander of the Lake Erie, the report found, DeFant grabbed or struck her officers while they were...

Navy Capt. John Banigan is no longer aboard the San Diego-based guided missile cruiser Lake Erie. Neither is a goat named Master Chief Charlie. Banigan was ousted from command last week after the brass lost confidence in his ability to lead, the standard explanation when a commanding officer is removed. Banigan has been reassigned to a desk job. Master Chief Charlie is also ashore, though it remains unclear whether he is on Navy property or civilian property. He is, however, in excellent health, the Navy said. The fate of the captain and the goat became mixed when the Navy began...

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and the United States Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced the successful completion of an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) intercept flight test, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, off the coast of Kauai in Hawaii. The event marked the fourth time that a JMSDF ship has engaged a ballistic missile target, including three successful intercepts, with the sea-based midcourse engagement capability provided by Aegis BMD. The JFTM-4 test event verified the newest engagement capability of the Japan Aegis BMD configuration of the recently upgraded Japanese destroyer, JS KIRISHIMA. At approximately 5:06 p.m. (HST), 12:06...

The second generation of Lockheed Martin's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, BMD 4.0.1, successfully detected, tracked and conducted simulated engagements against a variety of different ballistic missile targets during a series of tracking exercises in the Pacific. The key feature of the new system is a new integrated signal processor designed to improve the system's discrimination capability to defeat sophisticated ballistic missiles and their countermeasures. During a series of four tests, the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie - upgraded with the BMD 4.0.1 Weapon System - successfully detected, tracked and guided simulated Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IBs to...

In conjunction with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), U.S. Pacific Fleet ships and crews successfully completed a series of exercises to test the second generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) weapon system, Aegis BMD 4.0.1. This set of four exercises, designated FTX-06 Events 1-4, involved the tracking and simulated engagements of a variety of ballistic missile targets launched over the past several months from the Kauai Test Facility, co-located on the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sands, Kauai. The Aegis BMD system is a critical component of the nation’s overall Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). FTX-06 Event 1, conducted...

Lockheed Martin installed the latest evolution of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System - which includes a new ballistic missile defense signal processor, Aegis BSP - on the cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70). Over the next year, USS Lake Erie will complete a series of tests, leading up to full certification of the system upgrade by the U.S. Navy in early 2011. The Aegis BMD 4.0.1 system represents the next incremental capability upgrade that has been the hallmark of Aegis and its "build a little, test a little, learn a lot" systems engineering philosophy. The upgrade's new Aegis BSP...

A warship's missile hits its target to cheers from the control room Capt. R. M. Hendrickson stepped across the deck of the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie last Saturday afternoon to a bank of ballistic missile launch tubes, motioning to the particular 2-by-2-foot location from which a missile flew from the ship positioned at the time some 420 miles northwest of Hawaii.A modified tactical Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) launches from the USS Lake Erie impacting a non-functioning NRO satellite. (US Navy/AP) The missile hit its target, destroying a defective intelligence satellite that was falling toward Earth at 17,000 miles per...

February 22, 2008 Son of Star Wars takes out toxic satellite in $30m space hit Michael Evans, Defence Editor and Jane Macartney in Beijing Video need to know: expert opinion on the satellite operation The United States provided dramatic proof of its capability to destroy an object in space when a US navy missile scored a direct hit on an American satellite falling out of control. Missile experts said that the Standard SM-3 weapon, fired from the USS Lake Erie, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, took about three minutes to reach the satellite 150 miles (240km) up in the sky, flew above...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2008 – The missile fired from a U.S. Navy ship in the Pacific Ocean that hit a malfunctioning U.S. reconnaissance satellite late yesterday likely accomplished its goal of destroying the satellite’s toxic fuel tank, a senior U.S. military officer said here today. Preliminary reports indicate the SM-3 missile struck its primary target, which was a tank full of toxic hydrazine rocket fuel carried aboard the 5,000-pound satellite, Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. “The intercept occurred. … We’re very confident that we hit...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2008 – The Pentagon has opened the window of time in which it will shoot down a malfunctioning U.S. reconnaissance satellite, a senior U.S. military officer said here today. Today’s return of the space shuttle Atlantis to Earth prompted the start of the optimal time period for shooting down the satellite, which extends until about the end of the month, the senior officer told Pentagon reporters. Only “tens of seconds” will be available each day for a favorable launch of a ship-based SM-3 interceptor missile, the senior officer said. “The window is small, … but we’re looking...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Navy gunners in the Pacific were watching the sea and sky Wednesday, waiting for perfect conditions to take a kill shot on an errant satellite 150 miles above them. hey have just a 10-second window to fire, a Pentagon official said, and may not be able to take their shot on their first opportunity at 10:30 p.m. ET Wednesday. "It's not enough to say 'no,' but we're watching the weather," the official told reporters at the Pentagon. "It's on the margin." The cruiser USS Lake Erie will get one 10-second window each of the next nine or...

WASHINGTON — In the first such test, a U.S.-origin sea-based missile defense system has intercepted two target ballistic missiles. Officials said the Aegis missile defense system engaged and intercepted two ballistic missile targets in a test off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii on Wednesday. They said this marked the first operationally realistic test that involved two unitary targets. The Missile Defense Agency identified the interceptor as the Standard Missile-3 Block 1A missile, Middle East Newsline reported. In a test that included Japan, the SM-3 was fired from the USS Lake Erie, and the Aegis detected and tracked the targets as...

Air Force Lieutenant General Henry 'Trey" Obering, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, announced the successful completion today of a multiple simultaneous engagement involving two ballistic missile targets. This was MDA's latest "hit to kill" intercept flight test conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. For the first time, the operationally realistic test involved two unitary "non-separating" targets, meaning that the target's warheads did not separate from their booster rockets. This was the 32nd and 33rd successful "hit-to-kill" intercepts since 2001. Designated as Flight Test Standard Missile-13 (FTM-13), it marked the tenth and eleventh successful intercepts,...

Lieutenant General Henry “Trey” Obering, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, announced the successful completion today of the latest Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense “hit to kill” intercept flight test. Conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy, the test involved the simultaneous engagements of a ballistic missile “unitary” target (meaning that the target warhead and booster remain attached) and a surrogate hostile air target. This marked the eighth successful intercept in ten flight tests for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Program. The Aegis BMD system is the maritime component of the MDA’s Ballistic Missile Defense System, and is designed to intercept and...

LIHUE, Hawaii, April 25 (UPI) -- The USS Lake Erie is set to attempt an ambitious anti-ballistic missile test against two simultaneous targets Thursday. The exercise will be a delayed test of the U.S. Navy's Aegis ABM system, the Honolulu Advertiser reported Wednesday. "A similar test was aborted in December because of an incorrect setting in the Aegis missile system aboard the cruiser Lake Erie. This is the 10th intercept attempt. Of the previous nine, seven resulted in successful intercepts," the newspaper said. In one of the tests, the interceptor will be fired from the warship at a simulated short-range...

An interceptor missile fired from a US warship destroyed a short-range target missile in its last few seconds of flight, the US Missile Defense Agency said. "It was the first sea-based intercept of a ballistic missile in its terminal phase," the agency said. The USS Lake Erie, an Aegis cruiser that has been modified for missile defense operations, used a Standard Missile-2 Block IV missile to intercept a short range ballistic missile off Hawaii, the agency said. The goal of the test was to show that the target missile could be destroyed in the last few seconds of flight either...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An interceptor missile fired from a US Navy cruiser shot down a mock warhead over the Pacific after it had separated from a medium-range missile, the US military said. It was the sixth successful intercept in seven attempts since the tests of the sea-based missile defense system began in 2002, the Missile Defense Agency said. The sea-based system is designed to intercept short- and intermediate-range missiles with interceptor missiles fired from Aegis warships. The United States is developing a separate ground-based system in Alaska and California to intercept long-range missiles. Thursday's test was the first to intercept...

Ballistic Missile Defense Test Successful By K.L. VantranAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2003 – A missile launched from the Navy Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie successfully intercepted a ballistic missile target over the Pacific Ocean, Navy and Missile Defense Agency officials said here Dec. 11. The target was fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Hawaii's oldest island, Kauai. An SM-3 is launched from the Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie as part of the Missile Defense Agency's latest Ballistic Missile Defense System test to defeat a medium-range ballistic missile threat. The missile, part of the Aegis...

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A missile from a U.S. Navy Aegis cruiser knocked out a dummy warhead over the Pacific Thursday, the fourth intercept in five such tests of a sea-based anti-missile shield, the Pentagon said. The Standard 3 missile fired from the Lake Erie off Kauai in the Hawaiian islands "successfully engaged the target with hit-to-kill technology" about four minutes after the target was launched, said Chris Taylor, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency. The last test, on June 18, failed. The sea-based defense is to be integrated into a multilayered missile shield. President George W....