Navy missile intercept successful

From CNN.com - Technology:

The U.S. military intercepted a ballistic missile Thursday in the first such sea-based test since a Navy cruiser shot down an errant satellite earlier this year. The military fired the target, a Scud-like missile with a range of a few hundred miles, from a decommissioned amphibious assault ship near Hawaii's island of Kauai. The cruiser USS Lake Erie fired two interceptor missiles that shot down the target in its final seconds of flight about 12 miles above the Pacific Ocean. The target was shot down about 100 miles northwest of Kauai about five minutes after it was fired. The $40 million test showed Navy ships are capable of shooting down short-range targets in their last phase of flight using modified missiles the service already has, the military said. The Navy and the Missile Defense Agency have demonstrated that ships equipped with Aegis ballistic missile defense technology can intercept mid-range targets in midcourse of flight. The Lake Erie in February shot down a U.S. spy satellite that had lost power and become uncontrollable. Military commanders worried the satellite would break up and spread debris over several hundred miles if it fell to Earth on its own.

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