The U.S. Department of Defense said that the Boeing-managed missile defense system for the country had a successful intercept test, which is its first since 2008
The defense system, named the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, was able to intercept a simulated hostile missile above the Pacific.
The GMD system uses the Raytheon Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle Capability Enhancement II, or EKV CE-II, which detaches from the accompanying rocket to hit the incoming missile.
"This is a very important step in our continuing efforts to improve and increase the reliability of our homeland ballistic missile defense system," said Vice Admiral James Syring, Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Director.
In the test, a ground-based interceptor missile was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The interceptor successfully neutralized a simulation target, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., that was launched from the Reagan Test Site of the U.S. Army on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
According to Lockheed, the simulation target was 14 meters long and was developed to mimic the abilities of ground-launched missiles that can go as far as 5,000 km.
The Raytheon kill vehicle successfully intercepted the target, which was the first time that it was able to do so after to failed tests held in 2010. The GMD system failed in five out of its previous eight tests since 2004, when the system's deployment was rushed by the Bush administration amid increasing threats from North Korea.
The successful test validated the troubled GMD system, which was launched a decade ago and has cost the government around $40 billion.
Earlier in June, Syring said one more failure in testing would have pushed the Pentagon to rethink its motion for an additional 14 interceptors to the current 30 that are located in ground silos in California and Alaska.
Ten interceptors have the kill vehicle that was used in the successful test, while the rest of the interceptors still have the kill vehicle that was unsuccessful in a test last year. Syring said that the interceptors will all have the successful kill vehicles installed by the end of the year.
Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance founder Riki Ellison lauded the success in the test as a major milestone for the program, saying that U.S. commanders would then need to launch fewer interceptors to counter an incoming warhead.
Critics, however, are still not impressed with the Raytheon kill vehicle, pointing to its track record of succeeding only once out of three tries and urging Congress to reconsider the plan to purchase 14 more interceptors.
