Kevin Eyer
"In a unique demonstration of advanced missile defense capabilities, the U.S. Navy executed a groundbreaking test in which a two-stage ballistic missile was dropped from a C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft using parachutes before being launched directly into the air. This innovative approach, part of Flight Test Other-40 (FTX-40), codenamed Stellar Banshee, was designed to evaluate the Aegis Combat System aboard the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG 91) against a live medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) threat simulating hypersonic characteristics… The test scenario offered an unprecedented degree of realism. The missile, after being stabilized mid-air by parachutes, ignited vertically to replicate the flight profile of an operational MRBM. The USS Pinckney Arleigh Burke-class destroyer successfully tracked the threat using its onboard Aegis system and executed a simulated engagement using a virtualized SM-6 Block IAU interceptor. Although no physical interceptor was launched, the test validated the ship's ability to detect, process, and prepare for high-speed missile threats under realistic conditions." (Naval News Navy - Global Defense News).
I was not there for "Stellar Banshee," but I was the Commanding Officer of USS Shiloh (CG 67) for "Stellar Predator." Stellar Predator, or FTM-10, was the first test of the Aegis BMD 3.6 Combat System; the capability that allowed the ship to employ the Standard Missile-3 Block IA anti-ballistic missile. As for the target at Stellar Predator, it was a live ballistic missile.
FTM-10, like FTX 40, was an unqualified success, paving the way for delivery of Shiloh to Forward Deployed Naval Forces, Japan. There she would serve as the Navy's big Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) gun in the 7th Fleet for the next decade.
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