(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-18 10:20

Washington -- A Japanese navy destroyer shot down a ballistic missile on Monday in a test about 100 miles over the Pacific Monday, a first for a US ally, US and Japanese forces said.

The US55 million test was a "major milestone" in growing US-Japanese cooperation, said Rear Adm. Katsutoshi Kawano of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and Lt. General Henry Obering, head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.

Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer JS Kongo in an undated image. The Kongo shot down a ballistic missile in space on Monday in a test over the Pacific, a first for a US ally, a witness said. [Agencies]

US-Japanese missile-defense ties have grown greatly since Democratic People's Republic of Korea fired a three-stage Taepo Dong 1 missile over Japan on August 31, 1998.

The interceptor was fired by JS Kongo, the first of four Japanese destroyers due to be outfitted to counter missiles that could carry chemical, biological or nuclear warheads.

By intercepting a missile similar in speed and size to those in DPRK's arsenal, "Japan has proven its capability to defend and protect their country from North Korean missiles," said Riki Ellison, a prominent missile-defense advocate who monitored the test.

The test involved a shipboard detection and tracking tool called Aegis built by Lockheed Martin Corp and the Standard Missile-3 interceptor, produced by Raytheon Co..

The medium-range target missile was launched from a US range on Kauai, Hawaii. About three minutes later, the SM-3 intercepted it about 100 miles above the Pacific, a joint US-Japanese announcement said.

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