For the first time in U.S. history, a missile was launched to destroy a multi-sonic Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) from a U.S. Navy surface vessel. This test was carried out through USN cooperation with the US Missile Defence Agency on November 17, 2020.
The exercise was named Stellar Lancer (Flight Test Aegis Weapons System-44) and was also attended by the Battle Communications Management and Control Network (Command & Control Management Communications – C2BMC).
Photo by the website www.navaldefence.com
The detection of the ICBM’s launch and the tracking of its orbit was done by satellite. Which fueled the targeting of the C2BMC network at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. These data were then sent and used by Destroyer class Arleigh Burke, USS John Finn (DDG-113) in real time for launch and guidance from its deck of the SM-3 Block IIA missile.
The USS John Finn (DDG-113) was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the SM3-Block IIA rocket reached an extremely high altitude above the earth and successfully destroyed the iconic ICBM. The ICBM was Raytheon’s three-stage ICBM-T2 and was launched from the “Ronald Reagan” Ballistic Missile Center in the Marshall Islands and Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
The SM-3 Block IIA was designed to intercept short and medium-range hyper-sonic ballistic missiles. They were developed for launch from the ground and designed to provide an anti-missile shield to Europe against Iran’s medium-range ICBM.
It could destroy ICBM in their mid-course intercept phase and shoot down satellites. This missile was developed by Raytheon, Missile Defense in collaboration with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Photo by the website www.naval-technology.com
The US has already developed its own anti-missile shield consisting of 44 ground-based interceptors (GBIS) in Alaska and California. GBIS-based missiles have already been tested to shoot down ICBM.
Every US destroyer Arleigh Burke type is equipped with Aegis Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system and has more than 90 launch tubes on its deck. If this size is multiplied by the entire fleet of destroyers available in its fleet by the US Navy (44) then it is understood the size of the dynamics that the continental US anti-missile shield can reach starting in the Oceans.
The US Navy plans to deploy 65 surface ships with the Aegis (BMD) system that can be used for the full US anti-missile shield. The purpose of this strategy is for SM-3 Block IIA missiles to be able to shoot down hypersonic ICBM if the GBIS system does not show such success. Land based Aegis (BMD) systems have been developed also in Romania and Poland (Europe).
This has raised concern in both Russia and China, which are constantly developing their own missile and nuclear arsenal, respectively.
Russia’s response to this successful US Navy test came relatively soon with the launch of a long-range missile called 14Ts033 Nudol.
