 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Missile Defense Test Is A Hit
Washington (AFP) Dec 4, 2001 An interceptor missile hit and destroyed a mock warhead over the Pacific late Monday in the third successful test of a US missile defense system designed to shield the United States against long-range missile attack, the Pentagon said. "We achieved intercept," said Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman. The interceptor missile was fired from Kwajalein atoll in the Pacific some 20 minutes after a modified intercontinental missile roared off a launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying the mock warhead and a balloon decoy into space. A "kill vehicle" released by the interceptor collided with the warhead at 10:29 pm Washington time (0329 GMT Tuesday), she said. To hit the warhead, a "kill vehicle" used infrared sensors to find the mock warhead and distinguish it from the decoy. Maneuvering itself into a collision course, it pulverized the warhead at closing speeds of about 26,000 kilometers per hour (15,000 miles per hour). The United States has successfully intercepted a long-range missile with a ground-based interceptor missile three times in only five attempts. An interception on July 14 followed two failed attempts, which had raised questions about the technical feasibility of the system. Pentagon officials had said that a successful test would clear the way for progressively more realistic tests with more decoys and other counter-measures representing more varied classes of threats. But they stressed that this test was aimed at gathering knowledge, not determining whether the system was ready to be deployed. "It's just one in a long line of tests we intend to conduct to test a layered (missile defense) system," said Irwin. The previous administration had said it would deploy a small number of the interceptors if two successful intercepts could be achieved. But President George W. Bush's administration, which has changed the name of the system from the National Missile Defense System to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System, has opted not to deploy the system immediately.
|
