In a boost for US President George W. Bush's hopes to build a defense against ballistic missile attack, the Defense Department scored a hit Saturday with an interceptor that soared into space from a tiny Pacific isle and destroyed its target, a mock nuclear warhead.
It was the first test of the "hit-to-kill" technology the administration hopes will become a key element of a missile defense network. Of three previous tests in 1999 and 2000, two failed and one succeeded.
"The early indication we have is that everything worked," Air Force Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, director of the Pentagon's missile defense programs, told a news conference less than an hour after the intercept.
He said it would take many weeks to analyze all the test data, but initial indications were that "we hit pretty accurately." He said the successful test would not alter the Defense Department's plans to continue testing the technology.
Kadish said the next test, scheduled for October, might include some additional complexities such as adding more decoys, which in an actual attack would be used to attempt to fool the missile interceptor.
At 11pm, exactly the scheduled moment of collision between the interceptor and the warhead, an enormous white flash appeared at the planned impact point 230km above the earth's surface.
Military officials said minutes later that their tracking data showed a direct hit.
Reporters monitoring the test from a video-teleconference room in the Pentagon could see the white flash. The video then switched to the mission control room on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, where military and civilians officials who were running the test broke into a loud cheer, clapped hands and punched fists into the air.
The interceptor missile was launched from Kwajalein 21 minutes after its target, a modified Minuteman II intercontinental-range missile equipped with a mock warhead, roared toward the heavens from a launch pad 7,725km away at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
Navigating by the stars and by information transmitted from a ground station on Kwajalein, the interceptor's weapon, known as a "kill vehicle," rammed the mock warhead. The force of impact obliterated the warhead, thus the term "hit-to-kill," as distinct from other approaches such as detonating an explosive in the flight path of the target.
Less was riding on the outcome of Saturday's test than a year ago, when a failed intercept sealed then-president Bill Clinton's decision to put off initial steps toward deploying a national missile defense.
Bush has made clear he would proceed with an accelerated testing program regardless of the outcome Saturday.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique