US Navy warships used a missile interceptor for the first time in combat over the weekend as they defended Israel from an unprecedented Iranian attack.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said American forces fired the Standard Missile 3, or SM-3, to engage Iranian ballistic missiles that were fired as part of the massive barrage, which included more than 300 missiles and drones launched from Tehran and its proxies.
“We’ve been firing SM-2s, we’ve been firing SM-6s, and just over the weekend, SM-3s, to actually counter the ballistic missile threat that’s come from Iran,” Del Toro said at a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense hearing on Tuesday.
US officials previously said that two destroyers — the USS Arleigh Burke and USS Carney — operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea had engaged and destroyed at least four Iranian ballistic missiles, although it was not immediately clear how the warships shot down the threats.
USNI News first reported Monday that the two ships fired between four and seven SM-3s to intercept the missiles, citing unnamed defence officials. Del Toro’s comments to lawmakers appear to be the Navy’s first public acknowledgement of the SM-3 employment.
Source: businessinsider.com
