The Pearl Harbor-based USS Lake Erie, a guided-missile cruiser, fired a test missile Tuesday that hit a separating ballistic missile target over the Pacific Ocean, in the second successful test of the Navy’s Standard Missile-3 Block 1B interceptor missile.

The Missile Defense Agency said the intercept took place Tuesday at about 11:15 p.m. The target missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai. The Lake Erie detected and tracked the missile with its onboard AN/SPY-1 radar and the Aegis BMD (ballistic missile defense) 4.0.1 weapon system developed a targeting solution and launched the SM-3 Block 1B missile.

The Lake Erie continued to track the target and sent trajectory information to the SM-3 Block IB missile while it was in flight. The intercepter missile maneuvered to a point in space, as designated by the fire control solution, and released its warhead, which flew into the path of the target and destroyed it with the force of a direct impact in what the Navy calls a hit-to-kill intercept.

"Initial indications are that all components performed as designed resulting in a very accurate intercept," the missile agency said in a news release.

The Lake Erie also conducted a successful test of the SM-3 Block 1B missile and Aegis BMD 4.0.1 weapon system on May 9.

The Missile Defense Agency called Tuesday night’s test a "critical accomplishment" for the second phase of the missile defense system, which is scheduled to be deployed in Romania in 2015.