Tests of missile defense successful, Lockheed says

Lockheed Martin Corp. told shareholders yesterday that during weekend tests, its Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System destroyed a target as the warhead was separating from its missile.

This was the third time in three tries that the system's radar, developed at Lockheed's big Moorestown operation, was able to identify the warhead and ignore the missile that would soon fall back to earth, the company said.

The tests, conducted on a range in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, help refine next-generation enhancements of the Aegis ballistic missile defense system to be deployed beginning in 2010 on warships of the United States and allies.

Overall, it was the system's ninth hit in 11 in tests designed to refine the complex system.

"With nine successful intercepts from three different ships with three different crews, we can now clearly see the potential to transfer this capability to any Aegis-equipped ship," Rear Adm. Brad Hicks, the Missile Defense Agency's Aegis program director, said in a statement issued by Lockheed.

The Spanish Navy frigate Méndez Núñez, equipped with the system, used the weekend tests as training exercise, joining two U.S. Navy warships - the destroyer Decatur and cruiser Port Royal.

The tests, which include mock newscasts aboard ship of developing conflicts, evaluate the ability of a ship to identify and destroy all types of incoming missiles and also exchange threat data with other vessels and land-based operations.

Lockheed shares rose 63 cents, to $94.02, in trading on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday.