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Apair of U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke class destroyers in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea were reportedly among the assets employed to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones headed toward Israel last night. There are strong signs these ships may have fired Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) anti-missile interceptors in the course of those operations, which would mark the first use of those weapons against real incoming threats.

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...

Alabama had a large presence at the Farnborough International Airshow. In the case of Raytheon, that presence was also tall, slender and packing a punch. The Massachusetts -based company had several presentations and displays at the London show, including information on the Standard Missile-6 and SM-3. Both of the missiles are produced at Raytheon's 70,000 square-foot automation integration and testing facility on Redstone Arsenal. The company's presentation included a life-size model of its SM-3 kill vehicle, a defensive weapon used by the U.S. Navy to destroy short-to-intermediate-range ballistic missile. The SM-3 doesn't use explosives; engineered instead to use sheer force...

PACIFIC MISSILE RANGE FACILITY, Hawaii (NNS) -- The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Sailors of USS Lake Erie (CG 70) successfully conducted a flight test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system June 26. The test resulted in the intercept of a separating ballistic missile target over the Pacific Ocean by the Navy's newest missile defense interceptor missile, the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block 1B. At 11:15 pm Hawaii Standard Time (5:15 am EDT June 27), the target missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, located on Kauai, Hawaii. The target flew on a northwesterly trajectory towards a...

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...

In the Pacific, saber rattling is done with missiles. North Korea has announced that it will launch a Taepodong ballistic missile to celebrate the birthday of North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, on April 15. The country claims this will be a satellite launch, but most observers agree the test is meant to demonstrate a weapon delivery system. Either way, it violates a fresh agreement that North Korea signed just one month ago pledging not to test long-range missiles. In a notice to the International Maritime Organization, North Korea says the missile stages will splash down near the west coast...

Russia has threatened Norway with unspecified retaliation if Norway goes along with American suggestions that five Norwegian Nansen class frigates, equipped with the Aegis radar system, are upgraded to use the Aegis BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) system. Norway has gotten this kind of abuse from Russia in the past, which was the main reason Norway joined NATO (as one of the founding members, in 1949). Norway does not like giving in to these threats, especially since they recently concluded 40 years of negotiations to settle a maritime border dispute with Russia. This enables both countries to proceed with oil and...

New Raytheon Datalink Will Allow NATO Ships to Employ All Standard Missiles Datalink could facilitate broader NATO involvement in Phased Adaptive Approach Sep 13, 2011 LONDON, Sept. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) completed design and testing of a prototype dual-band datalink that will enable interoperability between the Standard Missile family of interceptors and a wider variety of radars and ships. "The dual-band datalink will allow for greatly expanded NATO participation in the European Phased Adaptive Approach," said Dr. Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile Systems. "This advancement bridges a critical technology gap in air defense interoperability between...

The US is sending a special radar-equipped warship to the Mediterranean Sea next week, in the first step to develop a broad anti-ballistic missile system to protect Europe against a potential Iranian nuclear threat, the Pentagon said. The move marks the first of the Obama administration's four-phase plan to put land and sea-based radars and interceptors in several European locations during the next decade. Endorsed by Nato during a summit in Lisbon last year, the missile shield has triggered opposition from Russia and set off lengthy negotiations over the future expanded ability to shoot down ballistic missiles in the region....

Raytheon Company and Aerojet, a GenCorp company, completed a kinetic warhead system integration test for Standard Missile-3 Block IB. The test verified the ability of the warhead to detect, track and intercept a moving ballistic missile target in a zero-gravity environment. During the test, a fully operational, flight-weight kinetic warhead operated on an air-bearing test stand and performed in a high-altitude chamber at Aerojet’s Sacramento, Calif., facility. The kinetic warhead’s seeker tracked a simulated target while the guidance computer sent information to the new Throttleable Divert and Attitude Control System. Once the TDACS received the information, the system fired its...

Japan-U.S. missile project canceled BY KUNIICHI TANIDA SENIOR STAFF WRITER A joint U.S.-Japan research program to develop software for a ship-borne ballistic missile defense system has collapsed after the two sides failed to agree on conditions for exporting the technology, sources said. Tokyo's insistence that the United States obtain prior consent from the Japanese government before selling the software to a third country caused the breakdown, the sources said. The United States has decided to continue with the project alone. The software on which the two countries were working is meant to improve the ship-board Aegis guided missile system, which...

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...

As the venerable Tomahawk missile becomes too vulnerable for certain targets, naval observers have wondered why the Navy isn’t racing to fill the U.S. surface fleet’s 7,804 Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells with a new generation of anti-ship or fast land-attack munitions. Our wait is over. The big brains at DARPA are aiming to appropriate VLS cells for the Prompt Global Strike Mission. Meet ArcLight–the weapon that will change the way the world thinks about U.S. surface combatants: “The ArcLight program will design, build, and flight test a long range (> 2,000 nm) vehicle that carries a 100–200 lb payload(s)....

<p>The United States will deploy SM-3 interceptor missiles in Poland between 2015 and 2018 under its plan to defend NATO allies in Europe from possible Iranian attack, a Polish official said on Thursday.</p> <p>The interceptors, which target short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, are part of President Barack Obama's revamped missile defence system.</p>

When the New York Times covers a weapons program we tend to take note, in part because they do so it so rarely. And when they put it on the front page, above the fold, we take even more note. The Times did just that this morning, trumpeting a tale about how a veteran missile defense sceptic at MIT, Ted Postol, and a Cornell University colleague, George Lewis, performed an analysis of SM-3 tests and came away convinced that the system does not work very well. Now my first reaction was deep skepticism. After all this has appeared to be...

President Obama’s plans for reducing America’s nuclear arsenal and defeating Iran’s missiles rely heavily on a new generation of antimissile defenses, which last year he called “proven and effective.” His confidence in the heart of the system, a rocket-powered interceptor known as the SM-3, was particularly notable because as a senator and presidential candidate he had previously criticized antimissile arms. But now, a new analysis being published by two antimissile critics, at M.I.T. and Cornell, casts doubt on the reliability of the new weapon. Mr. Obama’s announcement of his new antimissile plan in September was based on the Pentagon’s assessment...

The House Armed Services Committee today added $362 million to the Obama administration’s 2011 defense authorization bill for missile defense, including $50 million for further tests of Boeing’s Airborne Laser, a program the Obama administration had sought to wind down. “I am particularly pleased that the Mark increases funding for directed energy research. It was clear that the budget request was not sufficient to support further flight testing using the Airborne Laser Test Bed as well as mature innovative directed energy technologies,” Rep. Michael R. Turner R-Ohio, top Republican on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, said in a...

next-generation missile interceptor being co-developed by Japan and the United States would not be able to take out U.S.-bound North Korean long-range ballistic missiles flying over Japan, senior Defense Ministry officials said Sunday. This is because the range of the interceptor, dubbed the Standard Missile 3 Block 2A, would not allow an Aegis-equipped ship deployed off Japan to target high-flying missiles, the officials told Kyodo News. The outlook could affect debate in Japan over whether to exercise the constitutionally banned right of collective self-defense so as to shoot down U.S.-bound missiles flying over the country. With an estimated range of...

Less than a year ago, the Obama Administration cancelled plans for the so-called Third Site ground-based missile defense in Europe arguing that the near-term threat did not warrant deployment of a high-end defensive capability. Instead, the administration declared that it was pursuing a phased adaptive approach to missile defenses that would only deploy those capabilities needed to deal with the threat as it emerged. Only a few months ago, the administration published its Ballistic Missile Defense Review validating a new strategy for the defense of Europe based on a different system built around the Aegis ship-based missile defense system with...

Japan remains fully committed to building a linchpin multibillion-dollar missile interceptor with the United States, the head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency told Congress, even as U.S.-Japanese ties adjust to a new era. Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly said on Wednesday he had held several high-level program reviews with Japanese government officials since the Democratic Party of Japan's victory in the August 30, 2009, elections for the legislature's lower house. "They have indicated that they are in full support and their commitments are solid," he told the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee, referring to a Standard Missile-3 upgrade program in...