As North Korea threat looms, US Navy tests ballistic missile shootdown capability

More than a dozen NATO warships participated in the successful shoot-down of a ballistic missile target near Scotland on Sunday, the latest such test of defensive measures amid North Korea’s advancing nuke and missile programs.The live-fire exercise included 14 NATO warships, according to a statement from the U.S. Navy. During the maneuver, USS Donald Cook, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, successfully “detected, tracked and intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target with a Standard Missile-3 Block IB guided missile,” the statement said.In addition to the U.S., ships from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom also participated in the live-fire defense test.”I am extremely proud of the Task Group members and their performance during these complex, live-fire engagements,” Capt. Shanti Sethi, commander, Task Group IAMD for Formidable Shield, and Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet’s Task Force 64, said in a statement. “The exercise scenarios are designed to test our limits and give us a unique opportunity to truly practice how we would fight together as an alliance. We are coordinating and sharing information in real time the way we would in a real IAMD operation.”The test comes after several successful North Korean missile launches and nuke tests, and amid the Hermit Kingdom’s stated goal to possess a nuclear-tipped ICBM.

 

Source: As North Korea threat looms, US Navy tests ballistic missile shootdown capability | Fox News

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