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Japanese naval forces successfully shot down a medium-range missile off Hawaii in a test of Tokyo's missile defense weaponry, the US military said on Wednesday. A Japanese destroyer detected, tracked and knocked out the missile in mid-flight with an SM-3 interceptor rocket, the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said in a statement. The missile was launched on Tuesday at 6:00 pm Hawaii time (0400 GMT) at a missile range site off Kauai in Hawaii and at 6:04, an SM-3 interceptor was fired in response, the MDA said. "Approximately three minutes later, the SM-3 successfully intercepted the target approximately 100 miles...

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Japan last week to export a new type of ship-based missile interceptor under joint development by Tokyo and Washington to third countries, presumably European, sources close to Japan-U.S. relations said. Gates' request could lead to a further relaxation of Japan's decades-long arms embargo and spark a chorus of opposition from pacifist elements in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and one of its coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party. Gates made the request concerning Standard Missile-3 Block 2A missiles during talks with Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Wednesday, the sources said. The SM-3 Block...

Navy to Build 6 Mini-Aegis Destroyers By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter The Navy plans to launch six 5,600-ton ``mini-Aegis'' destroyers between 2019 and 2026 in an effort to help facilitate coastal and blue-water operations, the service said Tuesday. The plan was unveiled in a report submitted to a National Assembly inspection of the Navy at the Gyeryongdae military compound in South Chungcheong Province. The medium-sized KDX-IIA destroyers equipped with SPY radar and close-in weapon systems will be a core part of the Navy's strategic mobile fleet led by 7,600-ton KDX-III destroyers, it said. The mobile fleet is to consist of...

Israel and the US are in talks regarding the possibility that America will leave several Patriot 3 missile defense systems behind, following a joint missile defense exercise that will begin next week, defense officials said Monday. The Juniper Cobra exercise will begin next week in southern Israel, where US and Israeli forces will run simulations on various threat scenarios involving missile attacks against Israel. Ahead of the exercise, some 15 US Navy ships have arrived in Israel, in addition to about a dozen transport planes that brought equipment to air force bases in the Negev. This year's drill is being...

The U.S. government, encouraged by the high success rate (83 percent) of U.S. Navy Aegis equipped ships using SM-3 missiles to shoot down ballistic missiles, has decided to expand the number of SM-3 equipped ships. Just this year, the navy completed equipping 18 ships with the Aegis anti-missile system, and that number may soon more than triple. This is part of a larger trend. Last year, the navy cancelled its expensive new DDG-1000 class of destroyers, partly because these ships were built to support amphibious and coastal operations, and did not have a radar that could easily be converted to...

(10-01) 21:19 PDT Washington -- Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher today defended President Obama's new plan for missile defenses in Europe, saying it provides more protection to the United States and its allies from potential Iranian attacks and does not abandon previous security commitments in the region. Tauscher, a former seven-term Democratic member of the House from Walnut Creek, told the House Armed Services Committee that Obama's plan is better adapted to the current state of the Iranian threat. New intelligence shows that Iran is developing short- and medium-range missiles faster than expected and long-range, intercontinental ballistic missiles more slowly,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ever since President Ronald Reagan proposed building a ballistic missile shield in 1983 to prevent a doomsday scenario, the idea has been dogged by an unanswered question: Will it work? The prime target during the Reagan era was Russian missiles. A scaled-down defensive system recently proposed by the Obama administration would aim to shoot down warheads from Iran, which has heightened concerns by building a clandestine uranium enrichment plant and test firing missiles this week with a range of up to 1,200 miles. But even as the U.S. prepares to meet on Thursday with Iranian officials in...

Defense: A ballistic missile launched from Alaska is shot down by an interceptor launched from California. With threats from North Korea to Iran, it's time to ignore the skeptics and fully fund missile defense.It was the most realistic and most successful missile defense test ever in a Strategic Defense Initiative that could one day save an American city from a rogue missile strike. Yet the "yeah, but" media greeted this triumph with claims the concept is still unproven. It was as if the Wright brothers had announced man's first flight, only to be greeted with cries that they hadn't built...

Security: An Iranian mullah once said "a world without America and Zionism" was a real possibility. Our sellout of Eastern Europe and missile defense brings that dream closer to reality. It would take only one warhead."Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." A...

Alliances: The U.S. has expressed a willingness to barter away missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. Now the Polish foreign minister says he hopes his country doesn't regret trusting the United States.The Brussels Forum is a privately organized high-level meeting of the most influential North American and European political, corporate and intellectual leaders to address pressing challenges currently facing both sides of the Atlantic. One of the pressing issues discussed at this year's conference was whether the U.S. is serious about bartering away plans for missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic in exchange for...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2009 – Boosted by a few strong years of testing successes, much of the United States’ missile defense technology that once was questioned is now ready to be fielded. The destroyer USS Hopper launches a standard missile 3 as it operates in the Pacific Ocean on July 30, 2009. The missile successfully intercepted a sub-scale, short-range ballistic missile launched from the Kauai Test Facility at Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. The launch was the latest Missile Defense Agency test in conjunction with the Navy. U.S. Navy photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

SDI: If you missed the news, which isn't hard given how poorly these things are covered, our "unproven" missile defense proved itself again last week, when a U.S. warship downed a simulated North Korean missile in flight.The test, conducted in Hawaiian waters by the Navy and the Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency (MDA), was the 23rd firing by ships equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system. It was the 19th success, including the shoot-down of a dead U.S. spy satellite last year. A short-range ballistic missile simulating a missile like North Korea's Nodongs or Scuds was fired from...

National Security: Iranian missile experts are helping North Korea with the imminent launch of an ICBM that can hit Alaska and Hawaii. Imagine a Taepodong-2 with a nuke. This is no time to gut missile defense.The enemy of my enemy is my friend, the saying goes. On Sunday, the Japanese paper Sankei Shimbun reported that a 15-member delegation from Tehran has been advising the North Koreans on their imminent "satellite" launch since the beginning of March. Iran recently launched its own satellite to demonstrate its global reach. The Iranian experts include senior officials with rocket and satellite producer Shahid Hemmat...

SKorea, US team up to build and export Aegis warships by Staff Writers Seoul (AFP) July 22, 2009 US defence group Lockheed Martin and South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries will team up to build and export mid-size warships equipped with advanced Aegis weapons systems, an official said Wednesday. They signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in May 2006 to jointly produce Aegis-equipped guided missile ships, Hyundai Heavy spokesman Cho Woo-Tae told AFP. Cho said it is thought to be very rare for Lockheed to partner with a foreign company to produce Aegis-equipped vessels for possible sale to a third country....

YOKOHAMA — The U.S. Aegis destroyer John S McCain made a rare port call by a U.S. military ship at an international passenger terminal in Yokohama on Tuesday on what the U.S. Navy in Japan calls a goodwill mission. The John S McCain, based at Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, arrived at the Osanbashi terminal for large passenger ships. U.S. military vessels usually use the U.S. military facility at the port known as the Yokohama North Dock when they make port calls in Yokohama city. The destroyer will be opened to the public Wednesday. Yokohama is now celebrating the 150th anniversary of...

An advanced component of the U.S. missile defense system has been cleared for flight testing beginning next year. The Raytheon Co., which has headquarters in Waltham, Mass., had design work carried out at the company's Missile System facilities in Tucson. The Standard Missile-3 Block IB program recently completed a critical design review, which will allow for flight tests in 2010 with eventual deployment in Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense systems by the U.S. Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency, the company said in a release. "SM-3 Block IB is designed to outpace the evolving ballistic missile threats," Taylor W. Lawrence, Raytheon...

South Korea is acquiring 40 U.S.-made missiles for an Aegis destroyer this month to boost its defences amid reports North Korea may soon test-fire missiles, Yonhap news agency on Sunday quoted a military source as saying. North Korea, which rattled regional security with a May 25 nuclear test, is preparing to test a long-range missile that could hit U.S. territory and mid-range missiles that could hit all of South Korea, a South Korean presidential Blue House official said last week. The surface-to-air missiles for the Aegis destroyer, designed to track and shoot down objects including missiles, can hit targets up...

Defense: As we prepare to celebrate our independence, North Korea wants to remind us of Pearl Harbor. Fortunately, we can make use of assets dreamed of by Reagan and deployed by Bush to defend our 50th state. Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported Thursday that North Korea would launch a long-range Taepodong-2 missile at Hawaii on or about July 4. This would be the anniversary of the first Taepodong-2 test on July 4, 2006. It would also mark the 15th anniversary of North Korean President Kim Il Sung's death.Those who know have stopped laughing at North Korea's increasingly credible nuclear and global...

SKorea’s only missile-tracking warship off duty: official South Korea’s only Aegis-class destroyer capable of tracking North Korean missiles is out of service for maintenance, officials said on Thursday, amid signs that Pyongyang is preparing for further launches. The 7,600-ton Sejong the Great has led efforts to track North Korea’s missile launches since it was commissioned last December. It was used to confirm the North’s April 5 long-range rocket launch. The North is now said to be preparing to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile as well as several medium-range missiles. Some analysts speculate the long-range missile could be fired to coincide...

TOKYO -- Japan's move Friday to deploy missile interceptors is the boldest challenge North Korea faces so far to its plan to launch a rocket in the next few days. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said he ordered the deployment of missile interceptors to Japan's northern coast to prepare to shoot down the rocket and any debris that could fall on Japanese territory. It was the first such order Japan had issued, a ministry spokesman said.

Video footage (clip) of SM-3-armed Japanese AEGIS destroyers putting to sea, heading out for possible confrontation with North Korean ICBM missile in the next few days.Go here, hit arrow on the orange box, just below the aerial photo of the crafts leaving port here in Japan.

With the possibility of an Iranian missile onslaught on Israel looming, the US Navy recently held an unprecedented exercise testing the communications network supporting its Aegis missile defense system across the Middle East. The test took place on the weekend of June 28 while Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen was in Israel for talks with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, and just days after Chief of US Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead concluded a visit here for talks with his counterpart, V.-Adm. Eliezer Marom. The communications test, revealed in the Navy...

In 1985, there was an article about a billion dollar project that just flushed money down a toliet. The contractors were Raytheon and IBM. One of the impacts of this failure was that the Advanced Los Angeles Class submarines put concrete ballast in its Tomahawk missile tubes instead of missiles. At that time, there was talk of another DoD project, SDI or the Strategic Defense Initiative, aka "Star Wars". Because of the failure of the IBM-Raytheon project, there was talk that the SDI project could not be done. Furthermore, this seemed to impact the SSI work. But the Ghost of...

In the movie "Armageddon," Bruce Willis and company jury-rig a nuclear bomb in spectacular seat-of-their pants fashion to break up a colossal asteroid before it hits the Earth and kills everything but the cockroaches. In real life, the United States military pulled off a slightly less ambitious mission -- shooting down a dying spy satellite late Wednesday -- but for similar stakes, the elimination of a threat to human life posed by 1,000 lbs. of deadly rocket fuel on board the crippled bird. Or so the official story line goes. A U.S. Navy Aegis cruiser, the Lake Erie, launched an...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The shooting apart of a crippled U.S. spy satellite last month created no significant new space debris, with all but small bits burning on re-entry to the atmosphere, the mission commander said on Wednesday. "We thought there would be much larger pieces," Rear Admiral Alan Hicks, who heads the Pentagon's Aegis ballistic missile defense program, said in the most comprehensive report yet on the destruction of the satellite known as USA-193. In fact, none of the debris was larger than a football, he told a briefing at an annual conference of the U.S. Navy League, a booster...

Watch as General Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and apparently Jack Bauer's older brother) shows how the Aegis missile launches and successfully destroys the rogue spy satellite. [Via Gizmodo]

<p>A HIT! A missile launched from a U.S. Navy ship in the Pacific hit the decaying U.S. spy satellite it was targeting 130 miles above Earth's surface..... Developing...</p>

WASHINGTON — The order by President Bush for the Navy to launch an antimissile interceptor to destroy a disabled satellite before it falls from orbit carries opportunity, but also potential embarrassment, for the administration and advocates of its missile defense program. The decision was described by senior officials as designed solely to protect populated areas from space debris, and not to showcase how the emerging missile defense arsenal could be reprogrammed to counter an unexpected threat: in this case hazardous rocket fuel aboard the dead satellite. Even so, the attempt, expected within the next two weeks, will again throw into...

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say the Pentagon is planning to shoot down a broken spy satellite expected to hit the Earth in early March. This is the U.S. military will use a missile to destroy a satellite in space, NBC News reports. The spy satellite has lost all power and is expected to crash back on earth in early March, spreading debris and potentially hazardous fuel over several hundred miles.

An American missile ship set to dock at Haifa Port on Monday is equipped with an anti-missile defense system that could be deployed in the region in the event of an Iranian missile attack against Israel. The USS San Jacinto is an AEGIS cruiser in the Ticonderoga Class and was commissioned in 1988. It carries the most advanced underwater surveillance system available today and is equipped with the AEGIS missile defense system, which was developed by Lockheed Martin to protect against aircraft and missiles. The ship will remain in Haifa for three days. While the IDF developed and operates the...

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – Capt. Mineo Hirata and the 280 sailors on board the Japanese navy destroyer JS Kongo will attempt to shoot a ballistic missile out of space tomorrow – a first for Tokyo or any U.S. ally. The joint Japan-U.S. test off Hawaii comes almost 10 years after North Korea launched a long-range missile that flew over Japanese territory and splashed into the Pacific Ocean, spurring an alarmed Tokyo to invest billions in missile defense. “There are countries near us that possess ballistic missiles,” Hirata told reporters before the Kongo headed out to sea. “This (the test) is...

Japan has refused a Chinese request to tour an advanced combat ship as the US-China spat over Beijing’s refusal to allow a US aircraft carrier to dock in Hong Kong last week spilled over into Sino-Japanese military relations. A person familiar with the Japanese decision said that the Pentagon said the move would not be appropriate given China’s decision last week to deny the USS Kitty Hawk permission to dock in Hong Kong over Thanksgiving. The move marred the historic visit this week of a Chinese missile destroyer to Japan, the first by a Chinese naval ship since the second...

WASHINGTON — In the first such test, a U.S.-origin sea-based missile defense system has intercepted two target ballistic missiles. Officials said the Aegis missile defense system engaged and intercepted two ballistic missile targets in a test off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii on Wednesday. They said this marked the first operationally realistic test that involved two unitary targets. The Missile Defense Agency identified the interceptor as the Standard Missile-3 Block 1A missile, Middle East Newsline reported. In a test that included Japan, the SM-3 was fired from the USS Lake Erie, and the Aegis detected and tracked the targets as...

Air Force Lieutenant General Henry 'Trey" Obering, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, announced the successful completion today of a multiple simultaneous engagement involving two ballistic missile targets. This was MDA's latest "hit to kill" intercept flight test conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. For the first time, the operationally realistic test involved two unitary "non-separating" targets, meaning that the target's warheads did not separate from their booster rockets. This was the 32nd and 33rd successful "hit-to-kill" intercepts since 2001. Designated as Flight Test Standard Missile-13 (FTM-13), it marked the tenth and eleventh successful intercepts,...

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers 'buckling' under stress, admits USN By Tara Copp Serious structural defects have been identified throughout the United States Navy's fleet of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Jane's can reveal. The navy (USN) has admitted that many of the 51 ships currently in service are buckling under the stress of higher-than-anticipated loads at sea. The impact of rough-sea slamming on the bow has led to warping of main transverse bulkhead beams and some of the cribbing, a source said. Repairs and strengthening work is already being carried out on the latest Flight IIA ships as well as vessels from the...

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced today it has completed an important exercise and flight test involving a successful intercept by a ground-based interceptor missile designed to protect the United States against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack. The flight test results will help to further improve and refine the performance of numerous Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) elements able to provide a defense against the type of long-range ballistic missile that could be used to attack an American city with a weapon of mass destruction. The interceptor was launched from the Ronald W. Reagan Missile Defense Site, located at...

Lieutenant General Henry A. ‘Trey” Obering, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, announced the successful completion today of MDA’s latest “hit to kill” intercept flight test conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. This was the 28th successful intercept in 36 missile defense tests since 2001. The test involved a “separating” target, meaning that the target warhead separated from its booster rocket. The event, designated as Flight Test Standard Missile -12 (FTM-12), marked the ninth successful intercept in eleven flight tests for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program, the sea-based component of the Agency’s Ballistic Missile...

Proposal for an affordable, scalable, and capable replacement of Ticonderoga AEGIS cruisers PROPOSED AEGIS REPLACEMENT CRUISER, USS SHANKSVILLE By the late 20-teens, the vaunted Ticonderoga cruisers of the United States Navy will begin to apporach the end of their service life. DDX and CGX programs and their DD21, DD1000, and CG21 alternatives are all languishing on cost basis. CURRENT AEGIS CRUISERS (Oldest is over 20 years old) With the successful introduction of the KDX-III, Sejong class AEGIS DDGs for the Republic of Korean Navy (ROKN), which the United States worked closely with, it is clear that a cruiser size variant...

On Friday, May 25th, 2007, the Republic of South Korea reached a major milestone in its military and defense progress. The first Korean Destroyer Experimental III vessel (KDX-3) was launched on that date. The new vessel, named the Sejong the Great, DDG 991, is a full AEGIS capable vessel employing the same AN/SPY-1D system as the US Navy Areligh Burke class destroyers, and also utilizing the same AN/SQQ-89 submarine warfare suite. But the vessels are also much more heavily armed than their American counterparts, with an 80 cell VLS grouping forward dedicated to SM-2 missiles, and a 48 cell VLS...

                                            

South Korea's Navy Cruises Toward Oceangoing Force By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter ULSAN _ President Roh Moo-hyun appeared to be moved by the ``most brilliant achievement'' of the country's defense technology during a ceremony to launch South Korea's first Aegis destroyer on Friday. His 15-minute speech was emotional and the President expressed full confidence that the Navy would sail toward a powerful oceangoing force to keep up with neighboring naval powers. ``This is the most brilliant achievement of our national defense science and technology combined with our shipbuilding technology, and a demonstration of our strong willingness to build independent defense...

Japanese Police Raid Naval Centre Over Aegis Data Leak by Staff Writers Tokyo (AFP) May 19, 2007 Japanese police and naval officials raided a training centre for seamen Saturday in connection with the leaking of secret information on the US-developed high-tech Aegis combat system. Investigators searched the facility in Hiroshima prefecture, where sailors are put through specialised training in gunnery and torpedo operations. Earlier this year it emerged that authorities had questioned a 33-year-old petty officer for allegedly obtaining the confidential data on the Aegis system without authorisation. The case has unfolded since the officer's Chinese wife was arrested in...

I get a LOT of questions about AEGIS systems and how the other navies of the world are stacking up in their development efforts, and purchasing efforts (because four other countries have purchased the technology from us) to match our US Navy's outstanding capabilities. So, I created a site that presents and analyzes the various vessels out there. Hope the FReeper military community and others who may be interested, enjoy it. Just click on the linked logo below: This site is meant to go along with my: World Wide Aircraft Carriers Site

Korea to Launch New Aegis Destroyer this Month The first of a new class of destroyers named for King Sejong the Great will be launched late this month. Korea's new ship with its Aegis combat system will be more powerful than Japan's most advanced Aegis vessel. Aegis vessels are called naval "dream weapons", equipped with powerful radar systems that can detect and help destroy enemy aircraft or missiles hundreds of kilometers away. "The King Sejong the Great-class destroyer will be launched from Hyundai Heavy Industries' dock late this month," a military source said Monday. "Carrying a sophisticated radar system and...

Missile defense moves ahead By John E. Carey May 1, 2007 On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced from the Oval Office, "I've reached a decision which offers a new hope for our children in the 21st century." He explained his vision -- and his defense budget's inclusion -- of the first funds to go toward this nation's missile defense effort.     Liberals, and most of the media, derided the president's project as "star wars." Since 1983, America's Missile Defense effort has become a multinational, multi-system effort: and it has come down to earth and the sea.

Simultaneous Missile Intercepts From USS Lake Erie Make Strong Impression Fri Apr 27, 1:29 PM ET To: NATIONAL EDITORS Contact: Riki Ellison of Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, +1-703-299-0061 BARKING SANDS, Hawaii, April 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Riki Ellison, President of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), was at Thursday's missile defense test that produced a successful completion of an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense "hit to kill" intercept flight test conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands. His comments and observations include the following: "At approximately 11:33 a.m. Hawaii...

Navy Simultaneously Destroys Ballistic Missile, Cruise Missile Targets By John E. Carey Peace and FreedomAt approximately 5:40 PM Eastern time yesterday, Lieutenant General Henry “Trey” Obering, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, announced the successful completion of the latest Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense “hit to kill” intercept flight test.Conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy, the test involved the simultaneous engagements of a ballistic missile target and cruise missile target.Both targets were destroyed.The combat team of the ship had just seconds to find, identify, make an evaluation and engage these two targets.

Lieutenant General Henry “Trey” Obering, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, announced the successful completion today of the latest Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense “hit to kill” intercept flight test. Conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy, the test involved the simultaneous engagements of a ballistic missile “unitary” target (meaning that the target warhead and booster remain attached) and a surrogate hostile air target. This marked the eighth successful intercept in ten flight tests for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Program. The Aegis BMD system is the maritime component of the MDA’s Ballistic Missile Defense System, and is designed to intercept and...

US offers advanced missile system to Navy PTI Thursday, April 26, 2007 16:52 IST NEW DELHI: The United States has offered India one of its most advanced ship-board missile defence systems, capable of tracking and neutralising up to 100 attacking missiles. The equipment on offer, the Aegis ship-board missile system, has the potential of being integrated with country's indegenious missiles like the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and nuclear-capable Agni missiles. "An American company made a presentation to the Indian Navy in November 2006," Defence Minister AK Antony informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday. "This presentation was made in respect of...

Navy Missile Defense Test Tonight Most Complex Navy Missile Defense Test Ever By John E. Carey Peace and Freedom April 26, 2007 If all goes according to plan, the United States Navy will conduct the most complex Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) event ever at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) at sea near Kauai on Thursday.USS Lake Erie is scheduled to detect, track, provide a firing solution and launch missiles at two targets simultaneously.  The targets are a Ballistic Missile and a cruise missile. This kind of event has never before been conducted.