29 November 2001

U.S. To Conduct Missile Defense Test December 1

Washington -- The United States will conduct its fifth ballistic missile defense test December 1 at a test range over the Pacific Ocean, says Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.

"It is scheduled for Saturday night," Clarke told reporters at the November 29 Pentagon briefing. Previously, the missile test was scheduled for October 24, but was held up by technical problems.

In this test, a missile interceptor will be fired from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands to hit and kill a modified Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a mock warhead launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a Pentagon official said. The objective of the test is to determine if a missile interceptor can destroy an inbound intercontinental ballistic missile during the midcourse phase of the target warhead's flight, the Pentagon said.

It is the first test since a similar successful test conducted on July 14, and is in compliance with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the former Soviet Union, the Pentagon said.