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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (21010)	12/5/2001 12:51:08 AM
From: calgal	Respond to of 59480

U.S. Missile Test Succeeds After Two Delays By Brian Williams WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States took a major step forward on Monday in testing its controversial missile defense shield by successfully shooting down a dummy warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean. Both Russia and China oppose U.S. plans to develop a missile shield linked to the test, saying it would violate the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty and could trigger a new arms race. The test is part of President Bush's goal of building a limited shield to protect against ballistic missiles from ''rogue'' nations such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq. ``The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) announced today that it has successfully completed a test involving a planned intercept of an intercontinental ballistic missile target,'' the Defense Department said in a statement. The statement said the successful firing, twice delayed on Saturday and Sunday nights because of bad weather, successfully demonstrated ``hit and kill'' technology to intercept and destroy a long-range ballistic missile target. ``Tonight's test is a major step in our aggressive test program and is the third successful intercept in five attempts,'' the statement added. In the test, a ``kill vehicle'' projectile fired from the Marshall Islands' Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific intercepted and destroyed the dummy warhead launched on a Minuteman-2 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California about 4,800 miles away. In the $100 million test, likened to a bullet trying to hit a bullet at a combined speed of 15,000 miles an hour, the interceptor was launched 20 minutes after the missile launch. Just 10 minutes later, more than 140 miles above the Earth and while the Minuteman-2 was in mid-flight, the interceptor struck as planned. ``Sensors aboard the EKV (exoatmospheric kill vehicle) also successfully selected the target instead of a large balloon which functioned as a decoy,'' the statement said. The coordinated test also involved detecting the launch of the missile and working out from space and ground-based sensors the information needed to destroy the target. ``In addition to the EKV locating, tracking and intercepting the target resulting in its destruction using only the body-to-body impact, this test also demonstrated the ability of system elements to work together as an integrated system,'' the statement added. It said further tests would be carried out to achieve a missile defense ``to deter the growing threat of ballistic missiles carrying weapons of mass destruction.'' U.S. officials say the current missile defense tests do not violate the ABM treaty between the United States and former Soviet Union. That treaty forbids the United States or Russia from developing a national missile defense. But Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have vowed to move beyond that pact if Moscow and Washington cannot reach agreement on updating it. Despite agreeing to new and deep cuts in offensive nuclear missiles by both countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush failed to agree on the anti-missile program at a summit meeting in Texas last month, but said discussions would continue. dailynews.yahoo.com