A Pearl Harbor-based destroyer yesterday shot down a simulated short-range ballistic missile launched from Barking Sands on Kaua'i as part of the ongoing development of a U.S. missile defense system, according to the military.

It was the 19th successful intercept out of 23 attempts for the ship-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system.

The Navy yesterday afternoon fired a short-range ballistic missile from the Kaua'i Test Facility at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands.

Three Navy ships — the cruiser USS Lake Erie and the destroyers USS Hopper and USS O'Kane — tracked the target. The Hopper fired a Standard Missile-3 interceptor, which scored a direct hit on the target missile about 5:44 p.m., four minutes after the target was launched, the military said.

Yesterday's exercise cost about $40 million, officials said.

The Aegis system is the mobile, sea-based component of the nation's ballistic missile defense shield. It is intended to defeat short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles in midcourse flight with the Standard Missile-3, and short-range ballistic missiles in the terminal flight phase with the Standard Missile-2.

Eighteen Navy ships — three cruisers and 15 destroyers — are equipped with ballistic missile shoot-down capability. Sixteen of those ships are in the Pacific and two are in the Atlantic.