Image: Standard Missile III SM-3 RIM-161 test launch 04017005

Description: Standard Missile - 3 (SM-3) is launched from the Pearl Harbor-based Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70), during a joint Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Navy ballistic missile flight test today. Minutes later, the SM-3 intercepted a separating ballistic missile threat target, launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. The test was the sixth intercept, in seven flight tests, by the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, the maritime component of the "Hit-to-Kill" Ballistic Missile Defense System, being developed by the Missile Defense Agency. All previous Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense flight tests were against unitary (non-separating) targets.
Usage Terms: Public domain