Text Fwd: Pentagon Claims Success For Global Interceptor Missile System

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Pentagon Claims Success For Global Interceptor Missile System

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/01/content_11807055.htm
Xinhua News Agency
August 1, 2009

U.S. declares success in missile defense test

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said on Friday that it successfully
tested a sea-based missile defense system on Thursday night.

A target missile was fired from Hawaii about 11:40 p.m. eastern time Thursday
(0340 GMT Friday) and was tracked by Navy ships hundreds of kilometers away, the
agency said in a statement.

An Aegis-class U.S. naval ship then fired an interceptor missile, which struck
the target about 160 km above the earth.

The process - from launch to shoot-down - took less than five minutes.

The United States plans to use the sea-based system on Aegis-class ships to
protect against incoming short-to-medium-range missiles fired from hostile
countries.

The test was the 19th successful test in 23 attempts of the Aegis sea-based
missile defense system since 2002.

Another part of the missile defense protection - ground-based midcourse defense
- is designed to strike at long-range missiles.

Over the past seven years, the U.S. military has spent billions of U.S. dollars
on the missile defense program, with each test costing about 85 million dollars.
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