More SM-3 Interceptors Needed After Downing Iranian Ballistic Missiles: Navy Secretary
3rd May 2024
After seeing how well Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) anti-ballistic missile interceptors performed last month against Israel-bound Iranian ballistic missiles the Navy Secretary says he now wants more. Carlos Del Toro’s testimony at Wednesday’s Congressional budget hearing comes as the Pentagon’s Missle Defense Agency (MDA) wants to end procurement of SM-3 Block IB variants by the end of this year and limit its buy of the follow-on Block IIAs to 12 per year through Fiscal Year 2029.
“I truly believe that the SM-3s will be needed in greater numbers in the future, given the operations that took place in defense of Israel,” Del Toro testified during a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing. “Recently, some were fired. And very effectively. So I think given the future threat and our deterrence mission of the Indo-Pacific, we are going to need more SM-3s in the future.”