Two Direct Hits

Launch Day...by the Minute

The Navy calls it a test. That word feels far too simple.

A test is something you take in a classroom. A test is filling in bubbles with a No. 2 pencil. A test is something you can simply take again if things don’t go as planned. This wasn’t a test, this was a very expensive operation that had been in the works since before many of these sailors were born.

By the morning of the launch, months of planning, years of development, and billions of dollars in technology had all converged into a single moment somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The crew of USS Lake Erie had spent countless hours preparing for this day. The engineers, radar operators, weapons teams, sailors, officers…they had all prepared.

Even the sailors whose jobs had nothing to do with missile defense understood the significance of what was about to happen.

Captain Randal Hendrickson, who would later become an Admiral, ran the ship and was ultimately responsible for the overall test. Tall and slender, he had a kind presence that didn’t subtract from formal Naval speak, dress, and work ethic. He was an Aegis computer for me, quickly rattling off statistics, plans, and expectations, all the while leading the ship and providing our guidance.

The test itself sounded simple enough. A ballistic missile target would be launched from Kauai. A drone aircraft would simulate a second threat at a much lower altitude. So it would be as if a missile were launched at the U.S. and then another one at the ship. The system would need to take both threats down at the same time.