Japanese missile defense test fails off Hawaii

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Japanese missile defense test fails off Hawaii
Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:57am EST

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Japanese naval destroyer
failed to shoot down a ballistic missile target on
Wednesday because of a glitch in the final stage of an
interceptor missile made by Raytheon Co, a U.S. military
official said.

The kinetic warhead's infrared "seeker" lost track in
the last few seconds of the $55 million test, about 100
miles above Hawaiian waters, said U.S. Rear Admiral Brad
Hicks, program director of the Aegis sea-based leg of an
emerging U.S. anti-missile shield.

"This was a failure," he said in a teleconference with
reporters. It brought the tally of Aegis intercepts to
16 in 20 tries.

The problem "hopefully was related just to a single
interceptor," not to a systemic issue with the Standard
Missile-3 Block 1A, the same missile used in February
to blow apart a crippled U.S. spy satellite, Hicks said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4AJ15I20081120

[Breeze54]

1. How ironic....

:wow:

[ManiacJoe]

2. In what way?