Experiment of missile defense system off California coastline fails

Another test has been unsuccessful by the nation’s missile defense system. Billions of dollars have been spent over the years on various missile defense systems. There has to date to be a productive missile defense system implemented. Source of article – Missile defense system test fails off California coast by MoneyBlogNewz.

Making another missile defense system just for it to fail again

The Missile Defense Agency conducted the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, test on long range missile defense systems off of California. The target was not hit by the anti-missile which means the test failed, reports CNN. Of course, the Pentagon is just happy to know that both the intercepting missile, or "kill vehicle," and also the long range missile which was the target both launched. The Kqajalein Atol within the Marshall Islands was where the long range dummy missile originated from while the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was where the interceptor was coming from. Both successfully launched, but the kill automobile failed to discover its target.

Success nearly never happened

Boeing's modern missile defense system has a 53.3 percent success rate as 8 of the 15 targets tested have been shot down so far. These are deployed from California and Alaska. This test has not had an official reason for the failure, but it possibly is as a result of radar array, which is used to steer the interceptor missile to its target, called X-Band. A floating oil rig holds the X-Band array. Info about incoming targets is supposed to come from the X-Band. One more test was done this year in Jan.. The target wasn't hit in that test as well. The last successful test of the GMD was in December of 2008, when an intercepting kill car found its target, but some say that may have been a coincidence.

Failures shown in history

Missile defenses haven't shown a lot of success. Various systems and technologies have been developed and tested over the years, and apart from a few limited deployments, there have been few successes to speak of. The Strategic Defense Initiative was started by President Reagan 30 years ago. Since then, over $100 billion has been spent on missile defense systems. Anti-missile systems don't typically have good success in testing. In fact, non have ever managed a 100 % success rate.

Articles cited

CNN

edition.cnn.com/2010/US/12/15/missile.defense.fail/?hpt=T2