Monday
October
14 2002 10:00 PM EDT 
Missile
Intercept Test Successful
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
announced today it has successfully completed a flight test of the ground-based
midcourse defense (GMD) development program, intercepting an intercontinental
ballistic missile target. The test took place over the central Pacific
Ocean in the Western Test Range. A modified Minuteman intercontinental
ballistic missile target vehicle was launched from Vandenberg Air Force
Base, Calif., at 10 p.m. EDT, and a prototype interceptor was launched
22 minutes later and 4,800 miles away from the Ronald Reagan Missile Site
Kwajalein
Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The intercept took place
approximately six minutes after the interceptor was launched, at an altitude
in excess of 140 miles above the earth, and during the midcourse phase
of the target warhead's flight. This was the fifth successful intercept--and
the fourth consecutive--in seven flight tests since October 1999 for the
GMD program.
Details:
Saturday
July
14
2001 11:22 PM ET
U.S. Ballistic
Missile-Shield Test a Success
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense
Department shot down a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean late on Saturday
in a successful test of a controversial anti-ballistic
missile defense.
Two out of the three previous tests
had failed.
The $100 million test involved a
Minuteman 2 intercontinental ballistic missile launched from Vandenberg
Air Force Base on California and an interceptor fired from Kwajalein
Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall
Islands, 4,800 miles away.
The Defense Department said the target
was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 10:40 p.m.
EDT. Twenty-one minutes and 34 seconds later, a
ground-based interceptor lifted
off from Kwajalein Atoll, it said.
The target was destroyed 140 miles
above the central Pacific, outside the earth's atmosphere, by the 120-pound
``kill vehicle.''
Details:
March
18, 2002 9:21 PM EST
Missile
Defense Test Score Goes Three-in-a-Row
WASHINGTON, March 18, 2002 -- A ballistic
missile interceptor successfully destroyed a test target March 16 in what
Missile Defense Agency officials hope is becoming an almost routine occurrence.
The Ground-based Midcourse Defense
System's exoatmospheric kill vehicle vaporized a mock nuclear warhead on
impact 140 miles over the Pacific. The hit-to-kill vehicle distinguished
the mock warhead from decoys and other debris. The March 16 test was the
third success in a row and fourth out of six tries.
Details:
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COMMENT:
The ABM Treaty of 1972 was between the USA and the Soviet Union.
Where on the map is the Soviet Union? --Please find it...
How can we be bound by a treaty with a nonexistent country?
We cannot!
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Critics claim that if the US goes ahead with NMD it "...could
spark a new arms race."
With what will the Russians finance this arms race?
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