US destroyer intercepts target mimicking ‘ICBM’

Bloomberg

A US Navy destroyer successfully intercepted a mock intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) designed to simulate one developed by North Korea, a Pentagon official said.
The Aegis-class destroyer operating near Hawaii on Tuesday fired a Standard Missile-3 model Block II A made by Raytheon Technologies Corp at the target launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. “This was an incredible accomplishment and critical milestone” for the Aegis program, Vice Admiral John Hill, director of the US Missile Defense Agency, said.
The test showed the Raytheon missile “can defeat an ICBM-class target, which is a step in the process of determining its feasibility as part of an architecture for layered defense of the homeland.”
The successful intercept means the incoming Biden administration may have a new naval weapon that could intercept an ICBM if North Korea fired a missile at the continental US Navy vessels with the US 7th Fleet equipped with the new interceptor could be stationed near North Korea for intercepts shortly after launch. That would be in addition to 44 interceptors in silos in Alaska and California.
None of the missiles yet
have been installed on US Navy vessels.