Data Done

Most of the data analysis of a successful Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system intercept conducted this week has already concluded, according to a Raytheon official.

An SM-3 Block 1A missile launched from the Japanese destroyer Kirishima successfully shot down a medium-range, ballistic missile target yesterday off the coast of Hawaii, MDA announced early this morning. Kirishima is the fourth of four ships that Japan has retrofitted to carry Aegis BMD missiles.

Frank White, vice president of the company's air and missile defense business unit, said in a brief telephone interview today that "we've gotten pretty good at doing this, and so even within an hour of the mission, we'd done a lot of the data analysis. Essentially within a week, we will have completely run through all of the data there is to run through, but a significant amount of data analysis has already been done in the last 12 hours, and is done real-time."

The next intercept test of the Aegis BMD system -- off a U.S. combat ship -- is scheduled for the spring of next year and will feature an SM-3 Block 1A missile and Aegis Combat System version 3.6.1, according to White.