Air Force Lieutenant General Henry "Trey" Obering III, Missile DefenseAgency director, announced the successful completion the latest flighttest of the sea-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense element,conducted jointly with the U.S. Navy off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii.

The event, designated as Flight Test Maritime-14, marked the fourteenth overall successful intercept, in sixteen attempts, for the AegisBMD program and the second successful intercept of a terminal phase (last few seconds of flight) target by a modified Standard Missile - 2 Block IV(SM-2 Blk IV) interceptor.

The mission was completed by the cruiser USS LAKE ERIE (CG 70), using the tactically-certified Aegis BMD shipboardweapon system, modified for a terminal capability, and the modified SM-2 BlkIV.

At 8:13 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time (2:13 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time) a short range target was launched from a mobile launch platform 300 miles west ofthe Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii.Moments later, the USS LAKE ERIE's Aegis BMD Weapon System detected andtracked the target and developed fire control solutions.

Approximately four minutes later, the USS LAKE ERIE's crew fired two SM-2Blk IV missiles, and two minutes later they successfully intercepted the target inside the earth's atmosphere, about 12 miles above the Pacific Ocean and about 100 miles west-northwest of Kauai. .

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