SDI/Reagan Test Site

Interceptor fails to hit target for second time in three months
By Janene Scully
For the second time in three months, an attempt to shoot down a mock warhead flopped when the interceptor weapon failed to fly from the central Pacific Ocean launch site.
Officials said a target weapon with the dummy warhead successfully launched from Kodiak, Alaska, Sunday night. But the weapon set to ferry the "kill vehicle" didn't take off as scheduled from the Kwajalein Missile Range. "We don't know what happened this time, but preliminary indications are it was a fault with the ground-support equipment," said Chris Taylor, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency. He stopped short of called the test a failure. "We consider it unable to complete the test," he said. The test snafu is similar to an incomplete intercept attempt in mid-December. In that mission, a target launched from Alaska, but the intercept didn't occur when the missile carrying the "kill vehicle" failed to blastoff. Officials blamed a glitch in communication equipment. Under the schedule, the next missile defense test set for spring was suppose to involve a target launched from Vandenberg and an interceptor that would blast off from Kwajalein. Before the Dec. 15 launch, it had been two years since a test. The program had gone 5-for-8 in previous attempts to intercept a target. Taylor said he didn't know if MDA leaders will instead try to re-do Sunday's test. It is unclear how continued test failures would affect two experimental interceptor bases in Alaska and California. Those two bases, Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg, are positioned to oppose the threat of attack from North Korea. Both are still classified as experimental but, officials say, they could fire interceptors in an emergency. The Pentagon has not declared those bases "operational," but officials say they would work anyway once certain mechanical blocks are removed from the interceptors themselves. Six interceptors are at the Alaska site, with two more in California as a backup. Up to 10 more will go into silos in Alaska this year, officials say.

http://www.krsjv.com/Kwaj%20Brochure.pdf