Warship Aborts Missile Test Mid-Flight Off California

A missile test conducted by Canada’s navy was aborted mid-flight after communication with the projectile was lost.

Commander Jeremy Samson, the commanding officer of HMCS Regina, said “there was an issue” with the Harpoon Block II missile after it was fired from the vessel during joint U.S. drills at the U.S. Navy’s Point Mugu sea range near San Diego.

With a price tag of about $2 million, the Harpoon Block II is an over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile manufactured by Boeing. It can carry out land-strike and anti-ship missions—including on coastal defense sites, surface-to-air missile sites, aircraft, port or industrial facilities, and anchored ships, according to the outlet Naval Technology.

On Wednesday, less than a minute after the missile was launched toward a target about 35 miles from the ship, its flight was terminated, according to Canada’s Department of National Defense. The missile landed in the ocean and was not recoverable.

Samson told Canadian outlet CTV News, “When you fire a missile on a range, there are safety procedures to make sure the missile is doing what it’s supposed to, and losing that communication can cause you to order the missile to destruct.”

A spokesperson for Canada’s Defense Department told the outlet, “If communication is lost—even temporarily, and for any reason—the range will terminate the missile in flight.”

Newsweek has contacted Canada’s Department of National Defense for comment.

In a news release, Canada’s armed forces said it had a successful follow-up launch of the missile at a target near the shore that “reinforces a critical capability for Canada’s Pacific Fleet and the Royal Canadian Navy.”

“The capacity to do this in a complex environment is an essential aspect of joint and multinational operations,” it added.

Samson said in the release, “As evolving maritime threats shift between open ocean and littoral environments, realistic training scenarios are essential to prepare our sailors for future high-intensity naval and joint operations.”

On X, formerly Twitter, Commodore Dave Mazur, the commander of the Canadian Fleet Pacific, posted images that showed the launch at sea.

“The shot was similar to what might be seen in the Black Sea, requiring manoeuvre around land to hit something moving close to land,” Mazur added in a separate post, referring to the key strategic area in the Russia-Ukraine war.

The first Canadian test of the surface-to-surface missile occurred during the same California-based exercise in 2016 from another Pacific fleet frigate, HMCS Vancouver, CTV reported.

More than 600 warships, 180 submarines, 12 types of aircraft and mobile land-based launch platforms are armed with Harpoon missiles, with the navies of Japan, Pakistan and Australia among those equipped with the weapons.