A missile interceptor malfunctioned yesterday, spoiling a $55 million attempt by a Japanese Aegis warship to destroy a ballistic missile target, Reuters reported (see GSN, Nov. 11).
An infrared sensor device on a kill vehicle launched by a Standard Missile 3 interceptor lost sight of its target in the final moments of the test, roughly 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, U.S. Rear Adm. Brad Hicks said.
"This was a failure," he said, adding that the glitch "hopefully was related just to a single interceptor" and not a design flaw affecting all SM-3 Block 1A interceptors.
Raytheon Missile Systems, the U.S. contractor that built the interceptor, indicated that it would not make a statement on the test until an an engineering assessment of the incident is completed.
To date, four out of 20 attempted Aegis-based interceptions have failed (Jim Wolf, Reuters, Nov. 20).