Defense News:
WASHINGTON — On the heels of a successful intercept test of its homeland missile defense system against an intercontinental ballistic missile target, Missile Defense Agency Director Vice Adm. Jim Syring detailed plans to continue to challenge the system to ensure it is ready to go up against threats from North Korea and Iran, not just now, but against what is anticipated in the future.
Tuesday’s intercept test for the U.S. Ground-based Midcourse Defense System — designed to defend against intercontinental ballistic missile threats from North Korea and Iran — was a success that Syring characterized on a phone call to reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday as “a complete obliteration” of the target designed to represent an ICBM threat from Iran or North Korea.
The test marks the first time the GMD system has gone up against an ICBM class target, although some previous tests have featured intermediate-range ballistic missile targets that have approached ICBM speeds.
Syring said intelligence forecasts and projections on where Iran and North Korea’s technology might be in terms of reentry vehicles, countermeasures and rocket motors down the road helped the agency design a test target that would replicate a threat in the 2020 time frame in Tuesday’s test…
