A Pearl Harbor-based destroyer tomorrow will try to shoot 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.

USS Hopper will fire a Standard Missile-3 and attempt to intercept the ballistic missile target, the Missile Defense Agency said. Two other Hawai'i-based ships, the cruiser Lake Erie and the destroyer O'Kane, will track the high-flying target with their radars.

To date, including the February 2008 destruction of a malfunctioning U.S. spy satellite above the atmosphere over the Pacific, the system has chalked up 18 intercepts out of 22 attempts, the Missile Defense Agency said.

Tomorrow's exercise, which utilizes the Pacific Missile Range Facility, will cost approximately $40 million, officials said.

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

Eighteen U.S. 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.

The tests continue as North Korea on the Fourth of July test-fired seven ballistic-type missiles. The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo said the barrage included three Scud-ER missiles that have a longer range of up to 620 miles and are an increasing threat to Japan.

In a November test off Kaua'i, a Japanese destroyer failed to intercept a ballistic missile target when a malfunction occurred in the seeker missile's fourth stage of flight.

USS Lake Erie's recently installed Aegis upgrade will enable it to engage increasingly longer range, more sophisticated ballistic missiles, according to the Missile Defense Agency.