The Missile Defense Agency (MDA), in collaboration with the US Navy, has completed Flight Test Other-40 (FTX-40), also known as Stellar Banshee.
The exercise was carried out off the coast of the Pacific Missile Range Facility, located in Kauai, Hawaii.
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The test was executed from USS Pinckney (DDG 91) using the Sea Based Terminal (SBT) Increment 3 capability within Lockheed Martin’s Aegis Combat System.
This system is designed to detect, track, and simulate engagement with an advanced manoeuvring hypersonic target.
Previously, USS Pinckney had undertaken a freedom of navigation operation in the Caribbean Sea in 2020.
The latest tracking drill involved the firing of a simulated standard missile (SM)-6 at a target, which was an air-launched medium range ballistic missile (MRBM) equipped with a hypersonic target vehicle (HTV)-1 front end.
The target is designed to facilitate the testing and defeat of various hypersonic threats.
MDA director Heath Collins said: “Our ability to defeat manoeuvring, hypersonic missiles is critical if we are to defend our homeland and our forces against an increasingly dangerous threat.
“The Aegis Weapon System will play a vital role in the next-generation integrated air and missile defence system, and today’s test demonstrated key achievements as we continue to partner with the Navy in advancing our Nation’s counter-hypersonic capabilities.”
Additionally, FTX-40 offered an opportunity to collect data for the hypersonic and ballistic tracking space sensor demonstration satellite.
Supported by the MDA, the US Navy, Lockheed Martin, and other industry partners, FTX-40 tested a real-world hypersonic scenario.
Stellar Banshee marked the inaugural use of the most recent Aegis software in a virtualised configuration for a ballistic missile defence flight test mission.
FTX-40 also acted as a risk mitigation flight for the new MDA-developed test target and provided data collection for the Aegis baseline against a hypersonic representative target.
This exercise lays the groundwork for a live intercept of the MRBM HTV-1 target using the enhanced SM-6, a test known as Flight Test Aegis Weapon System-43 (FTM-43), Lockheed notes.
The latest exercise comes after the success of FTM-32, an SBT Increment 3 flight test experiment conducted in 2024.
It showcased 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.
