The United States and Japan say the first live-fire test of Raytheon Co.'s new Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA missile, under joint development by the two countries, was a success.
Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said the test was conducted Saturday from the Point Mugu Sea Range off the coast of California.
The SM-3 IIA is a 21-inch variant of an earlier SM-3 missile, which works with the U.S. Aegis combat system built by Lockheed Martin Corp. to destroy incoming ballistic missile threats in space.