Intercontinental ballistic missile test successful
WASHINGTON: The US military successfully shot down a mock intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time on Tuesday in a crucial test of its missile defence shield amid escalating tensions with North Korea.
A ground-based interceptor was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in the test to shoot down a mock-up of an ICBM from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the Missile Defence Agency said.
“The intercept of a complex, threat-representative ICBM target is an incredible accomplishment for the GMD [groundbased mid course defence] system and a critical milestone for this programme,” Vice Adm Jim Syring, director of the agency, said in a statement.
“This system is vitally important to the defence of our homeland, and this test demonstrates that we have a capable, credible deterrent against a very real threat.”
The move comes amid concern within the US government that North Korea is accelerating development of its own ICBM that could strike the US mainland. It also followed Pyongyang’s ballistic missile test on Monday, its ninth this year.
“North Korea has expanded the size and the sophistication of its ballistic missile forces from close-range ballistic missiles to intercontinental ballistic missiles,” Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis told reporters.
“They continue to conduct test launches, as we saw even this weekend, while also using dangerous rhetoric that suggests that they would strike the United States homeland.”
The ground-based system had a spotty track record, having succeeded in only nine of 17 attempts from 1999 to the previous test in 2014.