GMD Intercept Test Fails

An intercept test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system ended in failure today, the Pentagon just announced:

The Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Air Force 30th Space Wing, Joint Functional Component Command, Integrated Missile Defense (JFCC IMD) and U.S. Northern Command conducted an integrated exercise and flight test today of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element of the nation's Ballistic Missile Defense System. Although a primary objective was the intercept of a long-range ballistic missile target launched from the U.S. Army's Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, an intercept was not achieved. The interceptor missile was launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif.

Program officials will conduct an extensive review to determine the cause or causes of any anomalies which may have prevented a successful intercept.

Philip Coyle, senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, had this to say:

This is another big setback for the MDA and means that there have been NO successful GMD flight intercept test in the last five years, that is, since the end of 2008.  Two tests failed in 2010 and then, until today, MDA hadn't tried again, only to have another failure.  Zero successes out of three tries is Zero percent.

Since early December 2002, a little over 10 years, 10 GMD flight intercept tests have been attempted.  The record is six failures, three successes, and one unsuccessful test because the target failed to reach the defended area.  Three successes in 10 attempts is 30 percent.

Whether you count the performance over the past five years or the last ten, clearly the GMD system is something the U.S. military, and the American people, cannot depend upon. The idea of deploying 14 more of these same flawed interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska would be throwing good money after bad. And building yet another missile defense site on the U.S. East Coast and deploying more of these same flawed interceptors there would take U.S. taxpayers to the cleaners again.

In their report last year, the National Research Council warned against deploying more of these flawed interceptors at an East Coast site. Congress should heed this warning and not waste any more money on poor performance.

The test was intended to evaluate improvements made to the operational weapon -- which includes a first-generation exoatmospheric kill vehicle last tested in 2008 -- and bolster confidence in its effectiveness, InsideDefense.com reported earlier this week:

The intercept test -- Flight Test Ground-Based Interceptor-07 (FTG-07) -- is the second of three GBI flight tests scheduled for this year, and the only one for the Capability Enhancement I Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle. In January, MDA conducted a non-intercept flight test of a GBI with a CE-II, a second-generation kill vehicle that is still in development. A third GBI test, this one an intercept attempt, is planned for the CE-II this fall.

"We have made numerous improvements to the CE-I fleet through refurbishments since the last successful CE-I test in 2008, and this test will demonstrate the reliability of those refurbished GBIs," Missile Defense Agency Director Vice Adm. James Syring told the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee in written testimony prepared for a May 9 hearing.

Lt. Gen. Richard Formica, commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, who is also charged with operationally integrating joint missile defense capabilities for U.S. Strategic Command, told lawmakers at the same Senate hearing the upcoming test is important "so we can retain confidence" in the GBI missiles armed with CE-I kill vehicles.