The United States and Japan on Saturday successfully completed a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA flight test, the first live fire of the SM-3 Block IIA missile, according to a Missile Defense Agency (MDA) statement.
The missile successfully demonstrated flyout through nose cone deployment and third stage flight. Raytheon [RTN], prime contractor for SME-3 Block IIA, said Sunday in a statement the mission also evaluated steering control section function, booster separation and second and third stage rocket motor separation.
No intercept was planned and no target missile was launched. The test, designated SME-3 Block IIA Cooperative Development Controlled Test Vehicle-01, took place at Point Mugu Sea Range, San Nicolas Island, Calif., and was launched from a Mk 41 launcher. MDA spokesman Rick Lehner said Tuesday in an email the next test, planned for between October and December, will be another flyout with no target. Test will also take place from Point Mugu, he said.
Raytheon Missile Systems President Taylor Lawrence said in a statement the successful flight test keeps the program on track for a 2018 deployment at sea and ashore. Raytheon said SM-3s destroy incoming ballistic missile threats in space using sheer impact, equivalent to a 10-ton truck traveling at 600 mph. More than 200 SM-3s have been delivered, the company said, with SM-3 Block IB deployed at sea. SM-3 Block IB will be deployed ashore in Romania this year, Raytheon said.
The SM-3 Cooperative Development project is the joint U.S.-Japan development of a 21-inch diameter variant of the SM-3 missile, designated Block IIA, to defeat medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Aegis BMD is the naval component of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). MDA and the Navy cooperatively manage the Aegis BMD program.