A US Navy warship shot down a medium-range ballistic missile in space in the latest successful test of advanced military interceptor technology conducted on Friday, Fox News reported.
The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said the sailors aboard the US ship John Fitton in Hawaii's Pacific island of Kauai had intercepted the missile using an SM-3 Block IIA rocket off the west coast of Hawaii.
The missile was designed to drop intercontinental ballistic missiles coming from space. The interceptor force is similar to a 10-tonne truck that runs at about 1,000 kilometers an hour.
The warship managed to track the target using the radar, fired a guided SM-3 missile block IIA and intercepted the target successfully, the US Missile Defense Agency said in a statement.
The first successful test of objection was conducted in February 2017, when a USS John Paul Jones sailor shot down a ballistic missile using a guided SM-3 Block IIA rocket.
However, the US Navy failed two subsequent tests of the interceptor missile, most recently in January 2018, and the latest test was to make sure the missile was able to intercept again.
According to the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, based on observations and preliminary data review, the test has met its targets and program officials will continue to evaluate the system's performance.
