On Friday, North Korea launched a ballistic missile, likely the Hwasong-12, that was the second in three weeks to fly over Japan. The missile was launched again from Sunan, near Pyongyang, and flew for about 19 minutes. It reached an altitude of 770km (480 miles) and travelled 3,700km (2,300 miles) before landing in the Pacific Ocean, 2,000km (1,243 miles) east of Japan's Hokkaido. This is North Korea's longest-range flight of a ballistic missile ever demonstrated and was over the distance required to reach Guam.
On Monday, the Navy announced it had successfully conducted a simultaneous live target flight test with the SPY-6 radar system. The test took place on September 7th, at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Kauai, Hawaii. During the test, the SPY-6 radar successfully searched for, detected, and maintained track simultaneously on a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) and multiple cruise missiles.
On Tuesday, it was reported that the Huntington Ingalls launched its new Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) missile guided destroyer, the USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119). The launch took place on September 8th, 2017 at Pascagoula, Mississippi. The destroyer is being configured as a Flight IIA destroyer, which includes the ballistic missile defense capability.
On Wednesday, Russia successfully conducted a test of its RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The ICBM was launched from Russia's northern city of Arkhangeslk and travelled 6,000km (approximately 3,700 miles) before hitting its target. Russia stated the test was to assure the reliability of the rockets of the same class. This test was conducted just ahead of Russia's Zapad military drills, which began September 14th, and will continue until the 20th.
