The U.S. military says it completed a successful test in intercepting and shooting down a medium range ballistic missile off of Hawaii’s coast Tuesday, Aug. 29.
In a news release, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency says it and U.S. Navy sailors shot down the test missile aboard the USS John Paul Jones using the Standard-Missile-6 guided missiles.
The ballistic missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii.
“We are working closely with the fleet to develop this important new capability, and this was a key milestone in giving our Aegis BMD ships an enhanced capability to defeat ballistic missiles in their terminal phase,” Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves, the MDA’s director, said in a news release.
“We will continue developing ballistic missile defense technologies to stay ahead of the threat as it evolves.”
This report, of course, comes during tense times as President Donald Trump said that “all options are on the table” when it comes to a potential North Korea-based response.
North Korea, for the first time, fired a missile designed to carry a nuclear payload in what was likely the longest ever launch for the country. South Korea reports the missile traveled 1,677 miles and reached as high as 341 miles over Japan’s island of Hokkaido.
The Associated Press reports this test was North Korea showing off its capability in backing up its threat to target the U.S. territory of Guam. Guam is located about 2,110 miles away from North Korea.
This was the country’s 13th missile launch of 2017, and that some analysts believe North Korea could have “viable long-range nuclear missiles” before the end of Trump’s first term as president.
“The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior,” Trump said in a written statement.
“Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world.”