Raytheon' Standard Missile-6 Hits Ballistic Missile In Test

Raytheon’s Standard Missile-6 successfully intercepted a short-range ballistic missile near the Hawaii coast last week.

The Pentagon was quoted as saying by Reuters on Monday that following the July 28 test, the SM-6 will be deployed on US Navy Aegis ships next year.

Apart from demonstrating additional terminal defense layer of the Ballistic Missile Defense System, this important test campaign also proved the robustness of the multi-use SM-6 missile on board a Navy destroyer, Missile Defense Agency Director Vice Admiral James Syring said in a statement.

The tests emphasized the versatility of the latest version of the Aegis combat system built by Lockheed Martin Corp for use on Navy destroyers, Syring added.

The MDA said, it would use the test results to improve and enhance the multilayered US missile defense system that defends against a range of ballistic missile threats in all phases of flight.

Taylor Lawrence president of Raytheon Missile Systems said, the SM-6 missile offered the Navy greater flexibility to address a broad range of threats.

"SM-6 is the only missile in the world that can do both anti-air warfare and ballistic missile defense from sea," Lawrence added.

The SM-6 missile would be integrated into MDA's Sea-Based Terminal program on board US Navy ships as part of the Aegis missile defense system. 

Lockheed said, the latest Aegis configuration for destroyers, called Baseline 9.C1, used commercial technologies and open architecture systems to merge ballistic missile defense and anti-air-warfare capabilities into an integrated system.