Pentagon says missile defense system hit target in test

http://www.adn.com/2014/06/23/3529188/pentagon-says-missile-defense.html?sp=/99/188/189/288/

Pentagon says missile defense system hit target in test
By DAVID LERMAN and TONY CAPACCIO
Bloomberg News
June 23, 2014 Updated 18 hours ago

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon said its $34 billion ground-based system to defend the continental U.S. successfully intercepted a dummy incoming missile for the first time since 2008.

The test, using a conventional warhead made by Raytheon, took place on Sunday over the Pacific Ocean, the Defense Department said in an emailed statement. The interceptor missile made by Orbital Sciences was fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Boeing manages the ground-based missile defense program.

"This is a very important step in our continuing efforts to improve and increase the reliability of our homeland ballistic missile defense system," Vice Admiral James Syring, director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, said in the statement.

Two 2010 tests failed, as did one last July that used an older warhead that's on 20 of the 30 interceptors based in silos at Vandenberg and Fort Greely in Alaska.

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The Missile Defense System was Ronnie Raygun's wet dream.