Aegis Fails to Shoot Down Missile in Japanese Test
Japanese navy ship on Wednesday failed to shoot down a mid-range ballistic missile target in a test off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced.
Rear Adm. Brad Hicks, director of the U.S. Aegis ballistic missile defense program, attributed the failure to an unidentified problem aboard an interceptor missile fired from the Japanese destroyer JS Chokai.
It was only the second time Japan had attempted to shoot down a ballistic missile from a ship at sea. The first attempt last year was successful.
In Wednesday's test, a ballistic missile target launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands on Kauai was detected and tracked by the crew of the Chokai.
Three minutes later, the vessel fired the interceptor missile to shoot down the target in space, but the intercept failed.
There was no immediate determination as what went wrong.
"What we do know for a fact is that the weapons system on the Chokai and the crew of the Chokai performed superbly in operating the Aegis weapons system," Hicks said.
The $55 million test paid for by Japan went well until the last few seconds when "an anomaly" occurred aboard the interceptor missile, causing it to lose track of the target, Hicks said.
"I'm confident that we'll rectify the issue," he said.
Hicks said it was only the fourth failure out of 20 Aegis ballistic missile defense program tests. "We have a great record," he said.
Japanese navy ship on Wednesday failed to shoot down a mid-range ballistic missile target in a test off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced.
