U.S. PAC-3 test scores again against cruise missile

WASHINGTON -- The Patriot PAC-3 missile system has scored its second success in less than a week.

U.S. defense officials said the PAC-3 intercepted and destroyed a cruise missile surrogate target during a July 28 flight test at New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range. The PAC-3 Missile uses kinetic energy to destroy its ballistic missile targets and employs a fragmenting warhead called a lethality enhancer against air breathing targets.

On July 22, the PAC-3 intercepted a cruise missile surrogate. The Pentagon said the PAC-3 intercepted an MQM-107 cruise missile in a test at White Sands missile test range in New Mexico. The test was that of a program to defend U.S. troops and bases from attack.

Officials said on that occasion the PAC-3 had scored its fourth success in a row over the last 16 months. The three previous tests ended with the PAC-3 intercepting Hera ballistic missiles.

The PAC-3 will undergo another dozen tests over the next year.

The PAC-3 is produced by Lockheed Martin Corp. The Boeing Co. manufactures the seeker of the missile and Raytheon is responsible for integration.

In a related development, North Korea has attacked the U.S. Republican Party's pledge to develop the national missile defense system.

"U.S. conservative hardliners, obsessed by their wild ambition to become the 'world's only superpower' consider the situation on the Korean peninsula developing in favor of detente as an obstacle in the way of achieving their strategic goal," the Rodung Sinmun daily said on Thursday.