The US’s controversial missile defense system has passed a further test. An interceptor missile launched from the ground hit a dummy warhead more than 200 kilometers above the Pacific on Monday night local time, the third success in five attempts.
Bad weather had delayed the test for two days. But a modified Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile was finally launched from Vandenburg Air Force Base on the Californiam coast at 21.59 ET.
Twenty minutes later, the prototype interceptor was launched on another modified Minuteman from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Ten minutes later, instruments recorded the intercept.
The test largely replicated a previous test in late July, but with upgraded software and a new launcher for the target.
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“We are testing to learn, we are not testing as pass-fail for some operational reason,” Lt. Gen. Ron Kadish, director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, warned beforehand.
Operationally unrealistic
Kadish admitted that shooting at a target with only one balloon decoy was not “operationally realistic”, but said the US$100 million test shot would yield valuable data on “a class of warheads and a class of decoys”. Officials said weeks of analysis will now take place.
Three elements planned to be part of Monday’s test were dropped to remain compliant with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Kadish said. These include tracking with a ship-based Aegis radar system. Bush administration plans to withdraw from the treaty have so far been stalled by Russian opposition.
The current series of tests cover only the ground-based “Midcourse Defense Segment” of a planned multi-layer defense, which is intended to intercept intercontinental missiles above the atmosphere.
Other systems are in development to destroy missiles in the boost phase soon after launch, and as they close in on their targets.
The next interception test is planned for February.
