WASHINGTON — A U.S. ground-based missile Friday successfully intercepted a target missile over the Pacific in a test of the U.S. defense system, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said.
The interceptor was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and the target missile was fired from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, said Chris Taylor, a spokesman for the agency.
As soon as the target lifted off, the missile-warning radar at Beale Air Force Base in California found tracks of the target, he said.
A key objective of the test was to show that the recently upgraded early-warning radar was able to find the tracks of the target in time, Taylor said.
There have been 12 ground-based interception tests since 1999, of which four were failures. A test in May was declared a "non test" when the target missile failed to launch. Each test costs about 100 million U.S. dollars.
The Bush administration has pushed ahead the building of the missile defense system since it assumed office in 2001. It has set up missile defense bases in Alaska and California, and also planned to install 10 ground-based interceptor missiles in Poland and a tracking radar station in the Czech Republic as a defense against a potential missile attack from Iran.
Source: Xinhua
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