Lake Erie Shoots Down Ballistic Missile

[darrels joy]

Lake Erie Shoots Down Ballistic Missile

By Lt. j.g. Dan McFadden and Ensign Jared W. Samuelson,
Commander, Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- USS Lake Erie (CG 70)
successfully tracked, engaged and destroyed an Aries ballistic
missile with an experimental Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) missile
launched at sea within the Pacific Missile Range Facility
(PMRF), Kauai, Dec. 12.

The intercept, Lake Erie's fourth successful engagement with the
SM-3, represents the result of several years of testing designed
to expand the tactical Aegis weapons system into a multifaceted
and versatile component of the nation's ballistic missile defense
network.

Since 2000, Lake Erie has participated in numerous ballistic
missile test events designed to redefine the limits of the Aegis
weapons system and to integrate the Navy's surface fleet into the
nation's ballistic missile command-and-control network.

The culmination of this series of events was FM-2, the first
successful intercept of an exo-atmospheric target by the Navy's
SM-3 hit-to-kill kinetic warhead in January 2002. This success
was followed by a similar intercept, designated FM-3, in June
2002. In November 2002, during FM-4, Lake Erie participated
in her first engagement of a target missile during its ascent phase.

As in previous missions, Lake Erie's crew, assisted by numerous
representatives of the civilian and military research and
development community, sought to locate, track and destroy an
Aries test target over the waters of the Pacific Ocean. However,
FM-6 was a more demanding assessment of the combined
capabilities of the SM-3 missile and the Aegis weapons system.

This mission added the element of tactical realism to an already
challenging problem of intercepting a ballistic target in flight. The
ship was assigned a geographic position and monitored a
potential launch area over a period of hours. Without warning,
PMRF initiated the test by launching a target missile toward a
simulated friendly asset.

"The firing team had no clue when the missile would be
launched," said Fire Controlman 3rd Class (SW) Jacob Todd,
Lake Erie's missile systems supervisor for FM-6. "It's more of a
challenge because you always have to be ready to go."

Launching the SM-3 shortly after the conclusion of the target
missile's burnout, Lake Erie tracked both target and interceptor
throughout the engagement. Seeking to impact the target during
the descent phase of ballistic flight, the SM-3 missile approached
the point of intercept and released its hit-to-kill kinetic warhead.

The warhead is a guided projectile designed to impact its target
with a relative velocity of roughly 10,000 feet/second at an
altitude greater than 500,000 feet. Upon impact, the kinetic force
of the collision obliterated the threat.

"FM-6 was a much more difficult test than any of the previous
FM missions," said Lake Erie's combat systems officer, Lt. Paul
Wingeart. "There was operational realism imposed on the test
itself. We were making reports and doing all the things we'd be
doing in the real world."