Courtesy Photo | A Medium Range Ballistic Missile with a Hypersonic Target Vehicle (HTV)

MDA and Navy accomplish next step in Hypersonic Missile Defense

by Nancy Jones-Bonbrest, Missile Defense Agency, 03.25.2025 

The Missile Defense Agency, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, successfully executed Flight Test Other-40 (FTX-40), or Stellar Banshee, on March 24, 2025. In doing so, the agency achieved a significant step in advancing defenses to counter hypersonic threats to operational forces and the nation.

During the test, conducted off the coast of the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii, USS Pinckney (DDG 91) demonstrated the ability to detect, track and perform a simulated engagement of an advanced maneuvering hypersonic target using the Sea Based Terminal (SBT) Increment 3 capability embedded in the latest Aegis software baseline.

The tracking exercise included firing a simulated Standard Missile (SM)-6 upgraded missile at the target, an air-launched Medium Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM) with a Hypersonic Target Vehicle (HTV) - 1 front end. This target is engineered to allow testing and defeat of a variety of hypersonic threats. FTX-40 also provided a data collection opportunity for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) demonstration satellite.

“Our ability to defeat maneuvering, hypersonic missiles is critical if we are to defend our homeland and our forces against an increasingly dangerous threat,” said MDA Director Lt. Gen. Heath Collins. “The Aegis Weapon System will play a vital role in the next-generation integrated air and missile defense system, and today’s test demonstrated key achievements as we continue to partner with the Navy in advancing our Nation’s counter-hypersonic capabilities.”

This test was another successful example of the integration of space capabilities passing data that was processed through fire control and then provided to the ship for their simulated Aegis engagement of the target. Data analysis from this test could help inform efforts to advance the Nation’s counter-hypersonic and missile defense capabilities.

FTX-40 served as a key risk reduction flight for the new MDA-developed test target and a data collection opportunity for the Aegis baseline against a hypersonic representative target. This exercise is a building block for a live intercept of the MRBM HTV-1 target using the upgraded SM-6. That planned test is known as Flight Test Aegis Weapon System-43 (FTM-43).

FTX-40 builds on the success of FTM-32, an SBT Increment 3 flight test experiment, which was conducted last year and demonstrated the capability of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to detect, track, engage and intercept an MRBM target in the terminal phase of flight with an SM-6.

###

Additional information about the Navy’s Aegis Integrated Combat System and Guided Missile Destroyers can be found at www.navy.mil and additional information about all elements of the U.S. Missile Defense System can be found at www.mda.mil.