Merry Christmas, Hawaii: US Missile Defenses Just Improved

Merry Christmas, Hawaii: US Missile Defenses Just Improved
SpaceX-Imagery/Pixabay
Austin Bay
Updated:
Commentary

Hawaii can rest a bit easier this Christmas, thanks to another successful Missile Defense Agency anti-ballistic missile test. On Nov. 16, an SM-3 Block IIA (SM3) missile fired by a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS John Finn, destroyed an “ICBM-representative target” as it plunged toward Hawaii. The SM3 is a kinetic interceptor, hit to kill. Its November kill was exo-atmospheric—in near space.

Austin Bay
Austin Bay
Author
Austin Bay is a colonel (ret.) in the U.S. Army Reserve, author, syndicated columnist, and teacher of strategy and strategic theory at the University of Texas–Austin. His latest book is “Cocktails from Hell: Five Wars Shaping the 21st Century.”
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