The United States military says it has successfully intercepted a simulated incoming missile over the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, which has a price tag of 40 billion US dollars, aims to protect the continental US from long-range ballistic missiles.
Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands Photo: RNZI
At the weekend the interceptor missile was fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and struck a dummy intermediate-range ballistic missile launched from the US Army's Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
The successful test followed the system's failure to hit a simulated missile in five of eight previous tests since being launched ten years ago.
