The United States successfully performed a trial test tonight by launching an SM-3 ballistic missile system. This is the first interceptor launched from the ground under the US space shield program to protect enemy ballistic missiles against Europe. It's what they communicate from Missile Defense Agency US.
The ground base of the weapon system Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense launched an SM-3 Block IB missile from Kauai, Hawaii. The target was a target missile flying over the Pacific Ocean. The kinetic head of the SM-3 hit the ballistic missile in the re-entry phase with a direct impact.
The main purpose of the test was to evaluate the operational effectiveness of the Aegis Ashore capability as part of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). This night's test could be the last one before the entry into service of SM-3 Block IB interceptors in Romania according to the provisions of the 2 Phase of the European Phased Adaptive Approach. The first test in the framework of the European missile defense program took place last October. In a joint exercise with NATO allies, the United States destroyed a target in the North Atlantic.
The spatial apology has always been a cause of confrontation between Russia and the United States. According to the US the shield aims to defend allies from possible missile threats from Iran and North Korea. We know that precisely the Iranian threat could become such in a decade while the real capabilities of North Korea have never been demonstrated. Moscow, however, sees in the missile shield positions (interceptors in Romania and Poland) close to its borders as a threat to national security.
Russian countermeasures exist and are already in place: in the Kaliningrad region, which borders on Europe, missiles have been deployed Iskander and new stratified air defense and detection systems are being completed. The European fire stations of the US Space Shield will be in Poland and Romania. The Mediterranean Sea (as well as the Adriatic and Ionian Sea) represents the fulcrum of the shield's offensive capabilities with constant rotation from the 2011 of missile class cruisers Ticonderoga e Arleigh Burke. The two early warning stations were deployed at the RAF station in Fylingdales and in Turkey. The mobile station AN / TPY (Army Navy / Transportable Radar Surveillance, ed) was deployed at the Kürecik base, in Turkey, in January of the 2012.
(photo: US Navy)
