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A SM-3 is launched from the Japanese Ship Kirishima in a joint missile defense intercept test with the Missile Defense Agency in the mid-Pacific.
A Japanese naval destroyer shot down a ballistic missile in a test yesterday off Kauai.
The U.S. and Japanese militaries said the JS Kirishima fired an interceptor missile that shot down a separating medium-range missile target about 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean.
The Pearl Harbor-based destroyer USS Russell and cruiser USS Lake Erie tracked the target missile.
The event just past 5 p.m. marked the fourth time that a Japanese ship has engaged a ballistic missile target, including three successful intercepts, with the sea-based Aegis ballistic missile defense system.
Japan has installed Aegis ballistic missile defenses on four Kongo-class destroyers.
The U.S. fired the test’s target from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, Kauai.
The Kirishima detected the target, tracked it, then fired an SM-3 interceptor missile.
