A new, more powerful version of the missile-hunting Standard Missile-3 has passed from design to the testing phase, Raytheon announced d...
A new, more powerful version of the missile-hunting Standard Missile-3 has passed from design to the testing phase, Raytheon announced during a conference in Poland on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
The new Standard Missile-3 Block IIA, developed in cooperation with Japanese Mitsubishi, features a larger kinetic warhead and bigger rocket motors that allow it to defend broader areas from ballistic missile threats. The SM-3 Block IIA is also the centerpiece of the European missile defense system.
The Critical Design Review verified that the missile’s design will meet the stringent performance requirements necessary to defeat threats and keep the program on track for 2015 flight testing.
This announcement followed the recent 26th successful intercept of another variant, the SM-3 IB, in early in October.
The Standard Missile-3 Block IIA will be deployable on land as well as at sea. It will have two distinct new features: larger second and third stage rocket motors and a different version of the kinetic warhead, which destroys threats by slamming into them.
The announcement was made on the sidelines of the 2013 AIAA Multinational Ballistic Missile Defense Conference in Warsaw. More than 300 participants from 20 nations gathered at the conference to discuss the increased role of missile defense on a global scale.
Potentially, ships using either SMART-L radars or the Aegis system could carry SM-3, Kremer said.
Beyond the current cooperative development agreement between the U.S. and Japan for SM-3 Block IIA, other navies have expressed interest in the interceptor, including the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Denmark.
To date, more than 155 SM-3s have been delivered to the U.S. and Japanese navies.
