Japan navy hits target in missile test off Kauai

Japan successfully shot down a target during a ballistic missile test Tuesday night off the coast of Kauai.

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), with the U.S. Navy’s cooperation, successfully conducted the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) intercept flight test, the MDA announced Wednesday.

A simple separating ballistic missile target was launched at 10:37 p.m. Tuesday from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands.

The crew of the JS Atago, a recently upgraded Japanese destroyer, detected and tracked the missile target.

The Aegis Weapon System next developed a fire control solution, and a Standard Missile-3 Block IB Threat Upgrade missile was launched and intercepted the target above the ocean.

The JS Atago is now the most advanced warship in the Japanese fleet following this modernization effort, Lockheed Martin said in a news release. Its “Aegis Weapon System merges BMD into an integrated air and missile defense capability,” Lockheed said.

“The successful test is a major milestone verifying the capabilities of an upgraded Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense configuration for Japan’s destroyers,” MDA Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves said in a news release.

“This success provides confidence in the future capability for Japan to defeat the developing threats in the region.”

Tensions had grown earlier this year between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, who called him “little rocket man,” in reference to North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.

The two leaders met in June for a historic summit, but how to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons was never clearly outlined.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry supports a second Trump-Kim summit to help establish denuclearization and peace on the peninsula, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Greaves congratulated Japan’s maritime force, the MDA team and its industry partners.

Rear Adm. Akira Saito, senior director general, Operations &Plans Department of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, who led the test on-site, said: “Congratulations and thank you very much to all concerned with the test. I believe the success of this flight test mission further strengthened the Japanese BMD system.

“We, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Navy will enhance our relationship and cooperation to continuously promote our ballistic missile defense.”