Two upcoming ballistic missile defense tests over the Pacific will shed light on the ability to defend Hawaii now and potentially in the future from North Korean nuclear missiles.

An intercept flight test expected soon will see a Navy ship fire a Standard Missile-3 Block IIA interceptor missile off Kauai at a medium-range ballistic missile target launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility.

Although missile maker Raytheon said the new missile, jointly developed by the United States and Japan, is initially aimed at shooting down short-to-intermediate-range ballistic missiles, experts say its greater capability likely could be used in Hawaii against North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Intermediate-range ballistic missiles can fly up to 3,400 miles, while ICBMs are defined as having a greater range. Hawaii is 4,660 miles from North Korea.

Also in May, the first test is planned for a ground-based missile interceptor launched from California in an attempt to shoot down a “threat-representative” ICBM over the Pacific, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said.

Thirty-six ground-based interceptors — a number increasing to 44 this year — are in place in Alaska and California to theoretically defend the United States, including Hawaii, against nuclear missile attack. However, a Pentagon weapons testing office rated the $40 billion system in December as having low reliability.

The test will be closely watched to see if upgrades work at a time when North Korean ballistic missiles are being test-fired on an accelerated basis — the latest today, Korea time. Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S. Pacific Command, told Congress Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “is clearly in a position to threaten Hawaii today.”

Harris spoke before the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday and conducted a similar briefing for the Senate on Thursday.

Harris was asked Thursday by Sen. John McCain if it was clear that Kim’s goal was the development of nuclear weapons capable of reaching the United States, to which Harris answered, “There is no doubt in my mind.”

Harris also said “there is some doubt or questions within the intelligence community whether he has that capability today, or whether he’ll soon have that capability. But I have to assume that he has it.”

The last intercept flight test of a ground-based missile was in June 2014. A missile fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California successfully knocked out an intermediate-range ballistic missile target launched from the U.S. Army’s Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll.

The ground-based system has a record of nine successful intercepts out of 17 attempts since 1999 — translating to a 53 percent success rate. The upcoming test, designated FTG-15, will evaluate the upgraded “Configuration 2” booster and “Capability Enhancement-II Block 1” exo-atmospheric kill vehicle, which smashes into a warhead to disable it.

The separate test of the SM-3 Block IIA represents the second intercept flight test of the missile that has larger rocket motors and a bigger, more capable kinetic warhead to engage threats sooner and protect larger regions than earlier SM-3 missiles, Raytheon said.

On Feb. 3, a medium-range ballistic missile target was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, and the Pearl Harbor destroyer USS John Paul Jones detected, tracked and intercepted the target using an SM-3 Block IIA guided missile, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said.

The SM-3 Block IIA has more than twice the range of the current SM-3 Block IA and IB interceptors deployed on some Navy ships, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a Virginia nonprofit group.

The SM-3 Block IIA is expected to have the ability to intercept some intercontinental ballistic missiles, said George Lewis, who writes about missile defense at mostlymissiledefense.com.

Hawaii is in line to get a medium-range discrimination radar to better identify North Korean threats, and Harris, the Pacific commander, said placing ground-based interceptors in the isles should be examined.

Riki Ellison, chairman of the missile defense nonprofit, contends the Kauai Aegis Ashore facility, set up to test land-based missile defense sites for Romania and Poland, should be operational for the defense of Hawaii in times of emergency. Now, it’s used only for testing. According to the group, the Aegis Ashore facility cost $450 million, there is no plan for it after 2018, and it would cost $25 million to “operationalize” it for defensive purposes.

Ellison maintains the current SM-3 IB missile capabilities can be stretched to defend Hawaii against North Korean threats and be used in conjunction with the newer IIA missiles. Aegis ship-based ballistic missile defense has a record of 35 successful test intercepts out of 42 attempts. Pearl Harbor has ships with shoot-down capability, but with deployment duty and the technological challenges involved, none are assigned to the protection of the state.

The new medium-range radar for Hawaii, however, would provide tracking and discrimination at extended range “for multiple shot opportunities with a layered defensive interceptor inventory of the SM-3 Block IIA and SM-3 Block IB,” Ellison said.