US military intercepts missile off Hawaii in first test since February

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The US military says it has intercepted a ballistic missile near Hawaii in a test. The sea-based test Thursday was the military's first since an errant satellite was shot down earlier this year. A target was fired from a decommissioned amphibious assault ship about 160 kilometers off the island of Kauai. It was a Scud-like missile with a range of a few hundred kilometers. The USS Lake Erie fired two interceptor missiles at the target. It was shot down in its final seconds of flight about 19 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean. The Lake Erie is a Navy cruiser based at Pearl Harbor. In February, the ship shot down a US spy satellite in the Aegis defense program's first real-world mission.