On Jan. 31, the Missile Defense Agency conducted a flight test of its ground-based ballistic missile defense system. A target missile was launched at around 3:40 p.m. from the U.S. Army’s Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Approximately six minutes later, an interceptor missile was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc. According to an announcement from MDA officials, both missile launches were successful. However, the sea-based X-band radar used to detect and monitor the missiles’ activity didn’t perform as expected. Program officials are investigating the cause of the radar failure.
This article appears in Feb 4-11, 2010.
