Pentagon Test of Anti-Missile Missile Fails
The military failed to shoot down a missile with another missile Wednesday in the first live-target test of a planned high-altitude defense against nuclear attack.
“An intercept was not achieved. Analysis of flight data is continuing,” the Pentagon’s Ballistic Missile Defense Organization announced after the test of its Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) at the White Sands, N.M., Missile Test Range.
The truck-launched missile is designed to track and hit an attacking missile at high altitude.
The system, being developed by Lockheed Corp., is designed to succeed the Patriot missile, which was used against older Iraqi Scud missiles fired at Saudi Arabia and Israel in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The program is designed to protect troops and bases from attack and is far less ambitious and costly than former President Ronald Reagan’s now-abandoned “Star Wars” plan to protect U.S. cities from massive attack.
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