Stefan Mileschin

It was about as easy as a nuclear war

In a historic test, a US Navy guided missile destroyer shot down an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) warhead aimed at a patch of ocean off the Hawaiian Islands.

According to Popular Mechanics, once the missile launched, a network of sensors picked it up. The data was sent to the guided missile destroyer USS John Finn, which launched a SM-3 Block IIA interceptor.

Just as the ICBM released a simulated nuclear warhead, the SM-3 released an Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) designed to smash itself into the incoming warhead. Infrared cameras recorded a visible explosion as the EKV took out the simulated nuclear warhead.

Most types of ballistic missiles are small payload space rockets designed to boost nuclear warheads into low-Earth orbit. Once in space, the warhead coasts through orbit at several thousand miles per hour — the so-called midcourse phase when the warhead is midway between its launch point and target. The warhead then de-orbits into a trajectory that sends it plunging toward its target.

https://fudzilla.com/news/51933-us-n...towards-hawaii