US hits target with missile test
BBC News – Friday, 5 December 2008
The US wants a similar defence shield in Europe Photo: Missile Defense Agency
The US has successfully tested its missile defence system designed to intercept long-range ballistic missile attacks, the Pentagon says.
A spokesman said it was a crucial step in plans for the missile shield the US wants to base in Europe.
The target missile was launched from the Alaskan island of Kodiak before being tracked and destroyed by an interceptor launched from California.
Russia sees US plans to base such a system in Europe as a direct threat.
The US wants to build a radar on Czech soil and put 10 interceptor rockets in Poland as a defence against what Washington describes as “rogue” states.
Russia has said it will deploy short-range Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region to “neutralise” the US shield. …
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7768642.stm
Comment on this test by Martin Butcher, Independent Security Consultant
The Pentagon said in advance that this would be an ‘operationally realistic test’. However, the missile that was hit was on a low and slow trajectory, moving much less quickly than would have been the case from North Korea, Russia or elsewhere.
Secondly, the test was supposed to allow the interceptor to discriminate between the actual warhead and a number of ‘target realistic’ decoys, ie decoys that look like the warhead to the interceptor sensors. But the decoys failed to deploy.
The interceptor hit the missile, but the test overall was a serious failure in terms of ‘operationally realistic testing’, the standard that the Congress has imposed for deployment in Europe.
A detailed briefing on this from the Union of Concerned Scientist will follow soon.
