Defense Missile Misses Airborne Target in Test

A missile fired from a Navy cruiser missed its airborne target in a test of a sea-based missile defense system, the Defense Department said.

It was the second consecutive failed missile test over the Pacific after a series of successful strikes in the last 2 1/2 years, and the first failure of a sea-based test.

An Aries target missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai and a Standard Missile-3 interceptor was fired from the guided-missile cruiser Lake Erie, in an undisclosed area in the Pacific, about two minutes later, officials said.