USS John Paul Jones Reaches SM-6 Testing Milestone

During the first-ever SM-6 flight tests from a destroyer class ship equipped with Aegis Baseline 9, a Raytheon Company Standard Missile-6 destroyed a cruise missile target (BQM-74) at near the missile’s maximum range.

The USS John Paul Jones achieved the milestone while executing a series of three SM-6 flight tests designed to test the missile against subsonic, low altitude target drones (BQM-74) in over-the-horizon test scenarios. All three targets were destroyed.

“These tests once again demonstrate the SM-6’s ability to consistently take out threats beyond the radar’s horizon,” said Mike Campisi, Raytheon Missile Systems’ senior SM-6 program director. “If you want to defend against cruise missile attacks, the Standard Missile-6 is your weapon of choice.”

The SM-6 provides U.S. Navy sailors and their vessels extended range protection against fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles as part of the Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air (NIFC-CA) mission area.

The SM-6 deployed for the first time in 2013, and Raytheon has delivered more than 100 missiles. The missile’s final assembly takes place at Raytheon’s state-of-the-art SM-6 and SM-3 all-up-round production facility at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala.