ITS ABOUT TIME!
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Thursday June 10 4:40 PM ET
Military Hits Missile With Missile After Six Failures
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States Thursday destroyed a missile with another missile high over New Mexico in
the first successful intercept test of its troubled ''THAAD'' anti-missile defense system, the Pentagon said.
''It was a successful intercept,'' Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said. The successful test followed six successive
failures of the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) rocket being developed by Lockheed Martin Corp
(NYSE:LMT - news) .
The missile hit and destroyed a Hera test rocket in flight over the military's White Sands, New Mexico, missile test range at
7:19 a.m. EDT (1119 GMT), Irwin said.
Nearly $4 billion has been spent on the system since 1992. The Clinton administration faces pressure from Congress to
eventually put in place a system like THAAD against medium-range missiles as well as an even more ambitious national
missile defense system.
The military's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization said Thursday's Hera flight simulated that of a Scud ballistic missile
such as those fired by Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War and that the intercept took place high over the central portion of the
sprawling test range.
The test, in which the military said that radar, tracking and other integrated components of the system worked perfectly, was
good news for the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin after six costly failures and two recent postponements.
Republican Rep. Curt Weldon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, praised the success, saying it
demonstrated that THAAD would be effective in protecting U.S. troops overseas from ballistic missile attack.
''Today's successful intercept is the one that we have been waiting for,'' he said in a statement.
But the private Union of Concerned Scientists, which watches military technical issues from Washington, warned that the
successful hit under tightly controlled conditions did not prove THAAD could work ''against real-world missiles.''
''It is quite possible for a system to work well in tests and fail in the field,'' the group said in a statement, calling Thursday's
hit ''a relatively trivial step.''
Thursday's test was the 10th of a series of scheduled flights for the Lockheed Martin system. Defense officials have cited a
number of reasons for THAAD's earlier failures, including problems with the target-seeking system on the interceptor
rocket.
The U.S. Senate, alarmed at reports that China acquired sophisticated U.S. weapons technology and North Korea and Iran
were testing ballistic missiles, passed a bill in March committing the United States to deploy an ambitious national missile
defense system ''as soon as technologically possible.''
President Clinton earlier dropped his opposition to such a concept, which has elements of the ''Star Wars'' defense program
envisioned by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
Clinton pledged $6.6 billion to develop a national missile defense system in his budget for next year, but said he would
delay a decision on whether to build one until June 2000.
Many analysts are skeptical that a national missile defense system is needed after the Cold War or, indeed, could be built.
They say the U.S. policy of threatening massive nuclear retaliation has been successful in preventing any missile attacks on
the United States.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Co., a division of Lockheed Martin, is under pressure to make progress on THAAD.
Under its development contract, the firm could be penalized as much as $20 million if it does not conduct two successful
tests by the end of this month.
Lockheed was assessed a $15 million penalty after its most recent THAAD test failure on March 29.
Thursday's successful test had been postponed on May 25 due to a problem with a Hera target missile and again last
Tuesday due to a commercial power failure in New Mexico. |
