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Aegis Ashore Scores in First Intercept Test – USNI News

Aegis Ashore ground-based ballistic missile defense (BMD) system scored its first successful intercept from its Hawaiian test location, the Missile Defense Agency announced on Thursday.The late Wednesday test proves, according to the MDA, the efficacy of using a ground based BMD system built with the same radars and missiles used on the U.S. Navy’s guided…

Aegis Ashore ground-based ballistic missile defense (BMD) system scored its first successful intercept from its Hawaiian test location, the Missile Defense Agency announced on Thursday.The late Wednesday test proves, according to the MDA, the efficacy of using a ground based BMD system built with the same radars and missiles used on the U.S. Navy’s guided missile cruisers and destroyers.“The primary purpose of the test, designated Flight Test Operational-02 Event 1a, was to assess the operational effectiveness of the Aegis Ashore capability as part of a larger BMDS architecture,” read the statement.

Source: Aegis Ashore Scores in First Intercept Test – USNI News

Being stationed in Kauai must be simply awful! Incidentally, Israel also successfully tested their Arrow 3 BMD system this week.

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Responses to “Aegis Ashore Scores in First Intercept Test – USNI News”

  1. Jeff Gauch

    Please tell me that we’re pouring concrete for these on every military base.

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  2. NaCly Dog

    Get Poland’s set up ASAP.

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  3. Diogenes of NJ

    SM-3 is a dinky little exo only missile. It isn’t going to catch anything. The best it can do is to get in the way of an incoming BM. That should be sufficient until the Nimrods who would like to fling BMs at us can figure out a way to fly around it. BTW – there is a 21 inch round in the works. That’s the best you can do when you lose the strakes and fill up the vertical launch cell. As in so many other endeavors, in the BMD business – size matters.

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  4. Quartermaster

    The problem with BMD is that trying to kill at, or near, the target you gain little, The weapon will already be armed, and unless you damage the weapon in such a way that it can’t detonate, you lost anyway. Boost phase is where you want to kill it, if at all possible.

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  5. Diogenes of NJ

    Agreed, but to do it effectively you need zero-time-of-flight. Acceleration’s a bitch. On the positive side, the debris most likely comes down in enemy territory. Kinetic intercepts at BMD velocities produces complete obliteration if done properly. Any intercept at all is a mission kill.

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  6. Jeff Gauch

    There’s a couple orders of magnitude between a fizzle and a thermonuclear detonation. Especially if the fizzle takes place well above the optimum atltitude.

    Coast phase is the best we can get right now for intercepts. You have enough time to react and there aren’t any of those pesky borders keeping their missiles out of range. Plus even a damaged warhead will likely fail under the stresses of reentry. But it’s still a good idea to have a system capable of terminal phase intercepts.

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