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U.S. To Conduct 6th Missile Shield Test On Friday
Reuters ^
| March 14, 2002
| staff
Posted on 03/14/2002 6:39:48 PM PST by Lady In Blue
U.S. to Conduct 6th Missile Shield Test on Friday
Thu Mar 14, 1:46 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday will make a sixth attempt to intercept and shoot down a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean in a controversial missile defense test program opposed by Moscow, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said on Wednesday.
The test is part of President Bush (news - web sites)'s goal of building a limited shield to protect against ballistic missiles from "rogue" national such as North Korea (news - web sites), Iran and Iraq. Russia, China and other countries oppose U.S. efforts to develop a missile shield, saying it would violate arms control agreements and could led to a renewed arms race.
In the test, a "kill vehicle" projectile fired from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific will attempt to intercept and destroy a mock warhead launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, about 4,800 miles away, the Pentagon said in a statement.
It said the warhead will be launched from a modified Minuteman-booster rocket along with three balloon decoys that will open up in space. The kill vehicle must distinguish between the mock warhead and the balloons. If all goes as planned, it would destroy the warhead about 140 miles above the ocean. Previous tests have involved only a single decoy.
The test was scheduled to begin between 9 p.m. EST on Friday and 1 a.m. Saturday, the Pentagon statement said.
The United States has had three successes in five intercept attempts, including back-to-back successes in tests conducted in December and July.
U.S. officials contend the missile defense tests do not violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the former Soviet Union. That treaty forbids either party from developing a national missile defense (news - web sites).
Bush in December gave Russia formal six-month notification that the United States was abandoning the treaty in order to press ahead with the missile defense system.
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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: miltech; missiledefense; superweapons; test
FYI
To: Lady In Blue
A typically biased Reuters article. The Pentagon should begin to emphasize the "layered" nature of missile defence. This could defuse the "gotcha, all-or-nothing" reporting of these tests. Perhaps they are doing it and the media isn't reporting "fair and balanced." That would be shocking.
2
posted on
03/14/2002 6:54:55 PM PST
by
Faraday
To: *Miltech;*SuperWeapons
Check the
Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.
To: Faraday
Good points!
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