|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
U.S. Plans: Sea-Based Interceptor Hits Target An interceptor rocket successfully hit and destroyed a dummy ballistic missile Friday night in a U.S. Defense Department test of part of a sea-based missile defense system (see GSN, Jan. 25). The Pentagon launched the dummy missile from Hawaii at 9 p.m. and fired the interceptor, equipped with a kinetic warhead, from the USS Lake Erie eight minutes later, said Pentagon spokesman Maj. Mike Halbig. The interceptor destroyed the target at 9:18 p.m., Halbig said. The test was designed so that the warhead was almost assured to hit the target missile, according to the Associated Press. Engineers designed the test to evaluate guidance systems and not to determine whether it could hit a target under realistic conditions, officials said. The test was the first in which an interceptor rocket was fired from a ship at sea (Associated Press/Washington Post, Jan. 27). The test was the fourth in a planned series of nine tests for the sea-based missile defense program. Engineers have already completed extensive ground testing on the SM-3 kinetic warhead (U.S. Defense Department release, Jan. 26). The test did not violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty because the interceptor target was a short-range ballistic missile, officials said. “This test is in full compliance with the ABM Treaty,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Cathy Reardon. “Absolutely” (Agence France-Presse, Jan. 26).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
