US missile intercept test fails
Washington Post
Associated Press
December 15, 2010
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — An interceptor missile launched from California on Wednesday failed to hit a target fired from a Pacific atoll 4,000 miles away during a test of an anti-ballistic missile defense system, the Air Force announced.
The missile, called a ground-based interceptor, lifted off from coastal Vandenberg Air Force Base at 12:03 a.m. and released a device called an Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, or EKV, that was to plow into a target missile fired from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
The interceptor’s sensors worked and the EKV was deployed, but it missed, according to a statement from Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.
The cause of the failure will be investigated before another test is scheduled, Lehner said. …
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www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/15/AR2010121505427.html
