The Pentagon successfully tested a missile interceptor launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Monday, destroying a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean as a show of military might one day after North Korea launched the latest in a series of missile tests meant to signal its own growing strength.
Several elements of the U.S. military worked together to launch a mock intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. Then tracking technology in several locations helped the interceptor destroy the ICMB in a midair collision.
The Associated Press said the Pentagon calls the tactic “hitting a bullet with a bullet.”
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency called it an “incredible accomplishment” and a “critical milestone.” Vandenberg Air Force Base is on the coast located north of Santa Barbara near the town of Lompoc.
“This system is vitally important to the defense of our homeland, and this test demonstrates that we have a capable, credible deterrent against a very real threat,” Vice Adm. Jim Syring, who oversees the missile defense system, said in a released statement.
The whole thing works by carrying a “kill vehicle” which collides with the ICMB outside the Earth’s atmosphere, obliterating the target on contact. Here’s a good visual from CNN.
“Moments ago, the Pentagon successfully tested an upgraded missile defense system” @jaketapper https://t.co/pC3inrkqHW pic.twitter.com/NOpYcEtzsK
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) May 30, 2017
The test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) aspect of the U.S. missile defense system comes amid North Korea’s constant missile testing and threatening rhetoric. That nation is believed to be working toward an intercontinental ballistic missile that could transport a nuclear warhead.
North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Monday and claimed it flew 248 miles. It launched one in May that it claimed traveled 435 miles, which experts considered a “substantial advance.”
After the test, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said, “This successful intercept test of an ICBM-like target sends a clear message to the unstable dictator in North Korea that the U.S. ballistic missile defense system can and will shoot down any ballistic missile threat that endangers the American people.”
This was the ninth time the U.S. has conducted an intercept test like this since 2004, and it was the first test on an ICBM-type target. Four of those tests have been successful, including the most recent one in 2014, according to The Associated Press.
The U.S. has 36 interceptors in Alaska and California currently and could have 44 by year’s end.
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