U.S. Navy Gets Interceptors For Sea-Based Missile Defense

While Ft. Greely Alaska seems to be getting most of the BM defence attention, the U.S. Navy's ABM capacity may be up and running soon as well. The first of the Standard Missile-3 has been delivered to the Navy. The advantage of a Naval based ABM system is its mobility and the ability to protect itself.

The first five deployable Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors have been delivered to the U.S. Navy, achieving a key goal in the Defense Department's drive to field a sea-based shield against ballistic missiles, government and industry sources said Dec. 20.

The interceptors were assembled in Tucson, Ariz., by Raytheon Co., the SM-3's prime contractor, and placed in launch canisters at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. They now stand ready to be loaded aboard an Aegis ship. The USS Lake Erie, a cruiser docked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, could end up being the recipient of those missiles.

DOD had signaled for more than a year that it wanted to have five SM-3s available for emergency use by the end of 2004.

Naval ABM