The US Pentagon said it successfully intercepted a long-range missile target on Friday in a simulated attack to test the defense system it wants to expand in Eastern Europe to counter attacks from North Korea or Iran.
“This was the largest, most complex task that we’ve ever done,” said Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, director of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency.
But the target missile’s countermeasures, intended to simulate decoys from enemy missiles — precisely what critics of the defense shield doubt the system could overcome — failed to deploy, he said.
PHOTO: AP
“Countermeasures are very difficult to deploy,” he said, adding that “there are many threats today that don’t have countermeasures.”
The interception took place at 3:29pm, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, making the effort the eighth successful intercept out of the 13 tests conducted since 1999, with the last successful test taking place in September last year.
Overall military chiefs approved of the effort.
“I am extremely pleased,” O’Reilly said at a press briefing.
“All the systems were working together,” he said, referring to the complex alignment of radars, sensors and timing to coordinate the high-octane missile.
Brian Green, deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategic capabilities, said that the effort was an “operationally realistic test.”
The effectiveness of the defense shield has been questioned by some scientists who claim the program would be unable to distinguish between a missile and a decoy — precisely what failed to be realized in Friday’s effort.
The test is seen as a crucial step towards a controversial anti-missile shield Washington plans to base in Eastern Europe.
The administration of US president George W. Bush wants to install a radar facility in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in neighboring Poland by 2014.
The test of the project, which so far has cost the US Defense Department some US$100 billion, comes at a critical time before US president-elect Barack Obama moves into the White House on Jan. 20.
Obama has so far not committed to the missile defense shield.
One of his senior foreign policy advisors, Denis McDonough, has indicated, however, that Obama would support the program if the technology proved viable.
Moscow has repeatedly voiced strong objections to the shield plan, which Washington insists is not directed against Russia but at “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea.
Late last month Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged Obama to drop the planned shield in Eastern Europe.
“This project is aimed against the strategic potential of Russia. And we can only give it an adequate response,” he said.
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