Posted 5/4/2006
Pacific Ocean (Feb. 24, 2005) – A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) leaves the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) enroute to intercept a short-range ballistic missile target, launched minutes earlier from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. The intercept, which occurred some 100 miles from the island of Kauai, was the latest Missile Defense Agency test of its sea-based midcourse program. The program, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, has had five intercepts in the last six attempts.