US blames human error for missile test failure

‘The US military has blamed human error for a botched ballistic missile intercept test in late June, an embarrassing failure amid an ongoing row with North Korea over its missile program.
The June 22 test in the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai failed after a sailor on board the USS John Paul Jones, the US Navy’s missile defense test ship, pressed the wrong button on the Aegis Combat System and caused a RIM-161 Standard Missile (SM-3) Block IIA interceptor to self-destruct mid-air, Defense News reported Monday, citing an investigation by the US Missile Defense Agency.
Apparently, the sailor, a tactical datalink controller tasked with maintaining encrypted data exchanges between ships and aircraft, had registered the incoming ballistic missile as a “friendly” rocket, the report stated.
“Though the review is still in process, the SM-3 IIA interceptor and Aegis Combat System have been eliminated as the potential root cause” of the failure, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves, the director of MDA.’
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