CGTN America
In this image taken with a slow shutter speed and provided by the U.S. Air Force, an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test just after midnight, Wednesday, May 3, 2017, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The U.S. has about 450 of the missiles and they are routinely tested. But the latest tests come amid rising tensions with North Korea, which has tested its own nuclear missiles — including some designed to reach the United States. (2nd Lt. William Collette/U.S. Air Force via AP)
The Pentagon says it has shot down a mock warhead over the Pacific in a success for America’s missile defense program.
The test was the first of its kind in nearly three years. And it was the first test ever targeting an intercontinental-range missile like DPRK is developing.
The military says an interceptor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California slammed into the warhead as it traveled outside the Earth’s atmosphere after being launched from a test range on a Pacific atoll.
The most recent intercept test, in June 2014, was successful, but the longer track record is spotty.
Since the system was declared ready for potential combat use in 2004, only four of nine intercept attempts have been successful.
Story from the Associated Press.
