( CNN ) -- The United States successfully tested a sea-based component of its missile defense shield Thursday evening , intercepting a ballistic missile with a dummy warhead over the Pacific Ocean , the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said . A dummy missile is launched from a ship during a 2008 test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program . The exercise was the 19th successful test in 23 attempts of the system -- known as the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program -- since 2002 . A target missile was fired from Hawaii about 5:40 p.m. ( 11:40 p.m . ET ) and was tracked by Navy ships hundreds of miles away . The USS Hopper , one of three Navy ships tracking the launch , fired an interceptor missile , which struck the target about 100 miles above the Earth . The process -- from launch to shoot-down -- took less than five minutes , according to the U.S. military . The United States plans to use the sea-based system on Navy Aegis-class ships to protect against incoming short- to medium-range missiles fired from hostile countries . Eighty-six of the ships eventually will have the capability . Another part of the missile defense protection -- ground-based midcourse defense -- is designed to strike at long-range missiles . Both the sea-based and ground-based systems are part of the Pentagon 's `` layered '' missile defense plan . Much of the missile defense program is still under development , including lasers fired from a plane that the military hopes would destroy an enemy missile during launch . Other parts of the missile defense would fire short-range missiles at incoming warheads that are close to hitting their targets . Over the past seven years , the U.S. military has spent billions of dollars on the missile defense program . Pentagon officials have said that each missile defense test costs about $ 85 million .
Ship-based system shoots down dummy missile from about 100 miles away . Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense has More than 80 successful tests in 19 tries , agency says . 23 the U.S. Missile Defense Agency ships eventually will be equipped with system .