US Navy Warships Successfully Intercept Iranian Missiles with New, Untested Weapon
DEBARYLIFE – Ballistic missiles from Iran were intercepted last weekend by US Navy vessels using SM-3 launches.
Carlos Del Toro, the Secretary of the Navy, testified on Tuesday about the SM-3’s use.
Utilizing the exo-atmospheric interceptor in combat is a first. While defending Israel from an unprecedented Iranian onslaught over the weekend, US Navy warships deployed a missile interceptor for the first time in combat.
The enormous onslaught, which included over 300 missiles and drones launched from Tehran and its allies, included Iranian ballistic missiles that American forces fired the Standard Missile 3, or SM-3, to engage. This information was confirmed by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro.
To truly fight the Iranian ballistic missile threat, we have been firing SM-2s, SM-6s, and just over the weekend, SM-3s,” Del Toro stated on Tuesday during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense hearing.
Before now, US sources said that at least four Iranian ballistic missiles had been engaged and destroyed by two destroyers operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the USS Arleigh Burke and USS Carney. It was not immediately apparent how the warships had neutralized the threats.
According to USNI News, which first published the information on Monday and cited unidentified defense officials, the two ships fired four to seven SM-3s to intercept the missiles. Perhaps the first official acknowledgment of the SM-3 employment by the Navy came from Del Toro’s remarks to Congress.
Short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles are targeted and destroyed during the midcourse phase of flight by the SM-3, a component of the Navy’s cutting-edge Aegis Combat System, using a kinetic kill vehicle. Unlike previous Navy air defense systems, the SM-3 can kill targets outside of Earth’s atmosphere because to its ability to perform exo-atmospheric intercepts.
“In its Missile Defense Project, the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank states that SM-3s are special because they are the only Standard Missile intended to function in space vacuum.”
Originally deployed almost two decades ago, the Block I interceptors are among the few SM-3 variations that may be fired from the vertical launching system of a Navy warship. As of right present, the SM-3 has not seen combat use despite hundreds of tests conducted over the previous 20 years.
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All exo-atmospheric weapons were put to use during the weekend, though, not just the SM-3.
Many of Iran’s 120 ballistic missiles that were aimed at Israel on Saturday were intercepted by Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense system, which is also capable of neutralizing enemy threats in orbit. The top tier of the nation’s advanced air defense system is made up of Arrow 3 and Arrow 2.
Officials from Israel have stated that their military and its partner forces in the Middle East had intercepted 99 percent of the threats fired by Iran and its proxies, including one-way attack drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.
At least six ballistic missiles and more than 80 drones were destroyed by US forces, according to US Central Command.
The safety of American and coalition soldiers as well as regional stability are at risk due to Iran’s persistently unusual, malicious, and careless actions, according to a statement released by CENTCOM on Sunday.