
A top Defense Department official 0n Tuesday said the department expects to conduct a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA flight test against an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)-representative threat this summer. The FY 2018 defense authorization act directed DoD to conduct a test to evaluate and demonstrate the capability of the SM-3 IIA missile defense interceptor to defeat a “simple intercontinental ballistic missile threat," contemplating an additional U.S. mainland defensive capability against a North Korean missile. This test is occurring in…