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" As the decades-long debate over missile defense rages on, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) just marked a milestone. This past April, a Navy guided missile cruiser detected a dual threat, two missiles launched simulta\u00ADneously over the Pacific Ocean. They were dummies: a ballistic missile target fired into space from Hawaii, and a simulated cruise missile fired by a Navy aircraft. Minutes later both dummy weapons were knocked down, intercepted by two missiles launched from the cruiser.  The complex test proved that a missile-hunting vessel can intercept a ballistic missile while defending itself from a direct attack. It was also an example of how the MDA progresses -- taking on one nightmare scenario at a time, testing a host of systems rather than a single silver-bullet solution. The MDA hopes to have 15 missile-hunting vessels operational in 2008. An SM-3 missile is launched from the USS Lake Erie, headed for a simulated ballistic missile. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a1727/4217780/>