Free Republic

U.S. forces said they had destroyed a target in the first successful test of the Navy's newest anti-missile interceptor, designed to protect allies from attacks by countries like North Korea and Iran. A target ballistic missile was downed near Hawaii late on Wednesday by the latest Raytheon Co-built Standard Missile-3 interceptor, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said. The advanced interceptor is key to the next phase of an anti-missile shield being built by the United States in and around Europe. The United States plans to deploy increasingly capable SM-3 versions up to around 2020 to boost defences against missiles...