US, Japan test-fire jointly developed interceptor missile

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the Japan Ministry of Defense and U.S. Navy sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones successfully conducted a flight test Feb. 3, resulting in the first intercept of a ballistic missile target using the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA off the west coast of Hawaii. The two countries conducted the first interception of a ballistic missile target using a jointly built system amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s missile program. / AFP-Yonhap