The United States failed to complete a missile defense
test because of a fault in the interceptor.
The Defense Department said a missile defense test on Wednesday was
aborted when the so-called kill vehicle failed to separate from its booster.
The $100 million test was conducted over the Pacific Ocean and was meant to
introduce a range of assets in the planned U.S. layered defense system.
The failure was the first in a flight test since July 2000, in which the
kill vehicle also failed to separate from the booster. Five of the
eight tests by the Missile Defense Agency have succeeded.
"We do not have an intercept," Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick
Lehner said.
The kill vehicle is manufactured by Raytheon and is equipped with two
infrared sensors and a visible sensor. It is meant to ignore decoys and
focus on incoming warheads. Boeing Co. is the integrator for the
Ground-based Midcourse Program.
A Pentagon statement said the booster used in Wednesday's test was a
surrogate system. The statement said two new booster designs are currently
in development and will undergo flight testing beginning next
spring.
The agency said other missile defense assets employed in the test
performed as expected. This included the Spy-1 radar of the USS Lake Erie,
an Aegis cruiser, which successfully tracked the target missile after
launch.
In addition, the Airborne Laser, a modified Boeing 747 aircraft, used an
installed infrared sensor to detect and track the boosting target missile
after launch. The developmental Theater
High Altitude Area Defense also tracked the target missile after launch.
