The Navy and the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency have for the first time deployed on a ship the block 1B version of the Standard Missile-3 for missile defense, prime contractor Raytheon [RTN] said Wednesday.
The SM-31B was deployed as part of the U.S. missile defense plans for Europe known as the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) and endorsed by NATO. The deployment of the SM-3- 1B marks the second phase of the EPAA.
The United States began EPAA with the deployment of four Aegis destroyers to Rota, Spain. It was not clear which of those destroyers received the block 1B. The deployment of the block 1B came after a series of successful tests.
“The SM-3 block IB’s completion of initial operational testing last year set the stage for a rapid deployment to theater,” Taylor W. Lawrence, the president of Raytheon missile systems, said in a statement.
The block 1Bs are also slated for fielding in Romania under the ground-based portion of the EPAA known as Aegis Ashore starting in 2015, Raytheon said.