US to Conduct Eighth Ground-based Missile Defense Test

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 10, 2002

US to Conduct Eighth Ground-based Missile Defense Test

The US military will conduct the eighth ground-based missile defense test on Wednesday as part of efforts to develop and deploy a missile defense system, the Pentagon announced on Monday.

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The US military will conduct the eighth ground-based missile defense test on Wednesday as part of efforts to develop and deploy a missile defense system, the Pentagon announced on Monday.

In the test, a dummy strategic missile warhead will be fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Minutes later, a prototype interceptor will be launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the western Pacific, about 7,775 km from the Vandenberg base.

The test will be conducted between 3:01 a.m. and 7:01 a.m. EST (0801 and 1201 GMT), the Pentagon said.

A modified Boeing 747 military aircraft will be used in the test to track the Minuteman-2 intercontinental ballistic missile as it rises from Vandenburg with the mock warhead.

The Air Force hopes to use the aircraft at some stage in the future as a flying laser platform to shoot down missiles as they take off.

Five of the previous tests, including the last four in a row, have been successful. The most recent test was on Oct. 14.

Washington has been aggressively developing a missile defense system since President George W. Bush came to power last year. To clear the way for the development, Bush withdrew the United States from the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty between Moscow and Washington in June this year.

Bush's missile defense plan has been widely criticized by the international community. Russia, China and some other countries have expressed their concerns that the program could lead to a renewed arms race in the world. Opponents at home also argued thatthe missile defense system is too expensive and unrealistic.

Designing, testing and building a system of land and sea-based missile defenses would cost between 23 billion and 64 billion US dollars by 2015, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated earlier this year.

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