PACIFIC OCEAN (NNS) -- USS Hopper (DDG 70), an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer homeported at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, participated in the successful “Sky Hunter” Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) test event off the coast of southern California Feb. 15. Using a recent upgrade to its Aegis weapons system, Hopper was tasked with detecting and tracking a Minuteman III Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., during the boost and initial ballistic portions of flight, and providing cueing data to SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare) Space Systems Center (SSC) in San Diego and the Joint National Test Center in...