The Pentagon's top weapons development official directed an independent assessment of Raytheon's Standard Missile-3 Block IIA guided missile to scrutinize the reliability of the new ballistic missile interceptor in advance of considering a proposal to transition the weapon -- the first such interceptor developed with a foreign partner -- from development to production. Michael Griffin, under secretary of defense for research and engineering, commissioned an outside take on the SM-3 Block IIA after the interceptor notched two consecutive intercepts during...
