The greatest strategic threat to the United States is an attack by one or more ballistic missiles armed with nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction. Today, the United States remains completely vulnerable to this form of attack.
Missilethreat.com is dedicated to explaining this threat, and the urgent need for robust and layered missile defenses. Systems based on land, sea, air, and in space which are capable of intercepting a missile during any phase of its flight are necessary to provide for the common defense.
On December 18, Japan successfully executed the first test of its sea-based ballistic missile defense system. During the test, the Japanese destroyer JS KONGO stationed off the coast of Hawaii destroyed an incoming "SCUD-like" missile with a U.S.-developed SM-3 interceptor and the larger Aegis missile defense system. The simulated hostile missile was fired at 12:05 pm from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Detecting the missile, the Japanese Aegis destroyer then fired a SM-3 Block IA interceptor three minutes later. At 12:08 pm, the SM-3 interceptor destroyed the target some 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean, the twelfth successful intercept for the Aegis SM-3.