Test missile fired over the ocean destroyed with aid of isle sailors

A Pearl Harbor-based ship helped in successfully intercepting a target over the Pacific Ocean on Sunday in a test of the nation’s Ballistic Missile Defense System.

The destroyer USS Hopper, with its Aegis weapons system, detected and tracked the target using its onboard radar and provided information that contributed to the successful interception.

A long-range interceptor blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Central Cali­for­nia Coast, minutes after an intermediate-range ballistic missile was launched from Kwa­ja­lein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the Missile Defense Agency said.

Sailors aboard the USS Hopper detected and tracked the missile, and the interceptor struck the target warhead. Officials said it appeared all components of the test performed as designed.

"This is a very important step in our continuing efforts to improve and increase the reliability of our homeland ballistic missile defense system," said Navy Vice Adm. James Syring, Missile Defense Agency director, in a statement.

The agency said that in the past five years various countries have added more than 1,200 ballistic missiles. It said Iran could develop and test an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015.

The agency said North Korea is developing an intermediate-range ballistic missile and a solid-propellant short-range ballistic missile.

A nonprofit group advocating missile defense said the test sends a clear message to countries like North Korea about the United States’ development of missile technology.

"We’re way ahead of the threat," said Riki Ellison, spokes­man for the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, by telephone.

Ellison said the success of the test, the first to use the CE-II interceptor, leads the way toward improving the United States’ ability to intercept missiles and reduces the cost.

Ellison said the CE-II will be replacing about one-third of the 30 CE-I missiles in the U.S. arsenal.

The Department of Defense plans to add 14 more interceptor missiles by 2017.

Program officials will spend the next several months assessing the data obtained during the test.

It was the 65th successful intercept since 2001 for the Ballistic Missile Defense System.

A crew of Army soldiers from the 100th Missile Defense Brigade based at Colo­rado’s Schrie­ver Air Force Base remotely launched the interceptor.

Kwajalein is a small atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands where the U.S. maintains a ballistic missile defense site. It’s halfway between Hawaii and Australia.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.