Just three weeks after the Army’s successful missile test at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, the Navy will test its sea-based Aegis system tomorrow.

It will be the 10th try for Aegis off Kauai’s west side. This test will fire a missile from a ship to attempt to shoot down two targets simultaneously — one missile fired from the base and the other from an airplane.

It’s a repeat of the last test in December, which failed when a faulty system setting aboard the USS Lake Erie prevented the interceptor missiles from launching.

The Navy has been successful in seven of the nine previous tries, said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Christopher Taylor yesterday.

In tomorrow’s test, the Lake Erie will attempt to shoot down a short- to medium-range ballistic missile and at the same time a direct threat to the ship — a missile launched from an airplane, Taylor added.

The Aegis system is already deployed on six ships across the globe, and 18 ships will be equipped with the system by 2009, Taylor said.

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(Source: Tom Finnegan, Honolulu Star-Bulletin)