North Korea has fired 10 short-range rockets, two South Korean defense officials said Sunday. The rockets were fired from the eastern coast of the Korean peninsula toward the Sea of Japan, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified by name as a matter of security protocol. (Read more)
Iran has pursued a longstanding effort to buy banned components for its nuclear and missile programs in recent months, a U.S. official said on Sunday. This country has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, regarding such weapons as an important deterrent and retaliatory force against U.S. and other adversaries in the event of war. Its efforts to develop, test and field ballistic missiles, and build a space launch capability, have helped drive billions of dollars of U.S. ballistic missile defence expenditure, and contributed to Israel's threats of possible pre-emptive military action against Iranian nuclear installations. (Read more)
Navy and Army missile-defense crews successfully intercepted two medium-range ballistic missile targets during a Sept. 10 test conducted in the western Pacific, near the Army's Kwajalein Atoll/Reagan Test Site.
The crew of the destroyer Decatur used its AN/SPY-1 radar to track one of the target missiles. Using its Aegis ballistic-missile defense system, the crew then launched a Standard Missile-3 Block IA missile to intercept the target. Additionally, soldiers attached to Alpha Battery, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, used an AN/TPY-2 radar system and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system to find and track the missiles.
Using THAAD, the crew launched an interceptor missile, which caught and destroyed the second test missile target. The Missile Defense Agency, Ballistic Missile Defense System Operational Test Agency, Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, and U.S. Pacific Command also played key roles in the successful test.
