US Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Henry “Trey” Obering, III, Missile Defense Agency Director, and Rear Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano, Maritime Staff Office, Ministry of Defense, Tokyo, Japan, today announced the successful completion of a tracking exercise by the Japanese Destroyer, JS Kongo.
A target missile was fired from the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii yesterday. Shortly after lift-off, the crew of the JS Kongo, utilizing their 3.6 Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS), acquired and tracked the target, developed a fire control solution and simulated the launch of a Standard Missile – 3 (SM-3) Block IA interceptor.
The equipment performed according to design and a simulated intercept occurred minutes later above the Pacific Ocean.
The exercise was training for JS Kongo, which is scheduled to conduct an actual flight test intercept the middle of next month. It will be the first flight test intercept attempt by an allied Navy of the Aegis BMDS program. Last week, the USS Lake Erie (CG 70) successfully intercepted two BMD targets, launched from the PMRF, marking the tenth and eleventh intercepts, in thirteen attempts, for the program.
The JS Kongo also participated, tracking the targets and conducting a successful simulated intercept.
The target fell harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean.
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