Re: Interceptor downs missile in test over Pacific

El Castor wrote:
Interceptor downs missile in test over Pacific
Fri Sep 1, 2006 2:42 PM ET

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military shot down a target ballistic
missile over the Pacific on Friday in the widest test of its emerging
antimissile shield in 18 months, the Defense Department announced.

The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said it had successfully
completed an important exercise involving the launch of an improved
ground-based interceptor missile designed to protect the United States
against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack.

It would impress if they tried it during a rain shower and
randomly launched a target..everybody knew the target was
fired, so no BFD.


The test results will help improve the performance of a
multibillion-dollar shield against the type of long-range ballistic
missile that could be used to attack a U.S. city with a weapon of mass
destruction, the agency said in a statement.

Officially, the $85 million test was designed to collect data rather
than shoot down the target.

It was the first involving a live target since interceptor rockets
failed to leave their silos during tests in December 2004 and February
2005.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-09-01T184244Z_01_WBT005892_RTRUKOC_0_US-ARMS-MISSILE-USA.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
It was also the first since the ground-based system, which is part of
a layered shield that includes naval and aerial components, was
activated to guard against ballistic missiles test-fired on July 4 and
5 by North Korea.

Boeing Co. is prime contractor for the ground-based mid-course
defense. Major subcontractors include Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop
Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co..

In the exercise, a target missile was launched from Kodiak, Alaska.
And for the first time, the ground-based interceptor missile was
launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California.
Previous launches have been from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall
Islands.

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into."
Jonathan Swift

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