Dear Members and Friends,
This afternoon, north of Hawaii, above the atmosphere the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) failed to destroy an incoming intermediate-range target missile launched from Kwajalein Atoll. This is the second failure of our nation’s long range missile defense system under the testing program of the current administration and its Ballistic Missile Defense Review policy, released in February 2010 by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
This is a tremendous setback for the testing of this complicated system. Much more troubling is the confidence in the GBI system that is currently deployed in Alaska and California. The thirty deployed interceptors have a similar configuration to the one in today’s test.
There have been three major missile defense test failures over the past two years.
Time will need to be taken in order for a post-test analysis to be completed.
Modernization of the GBI system would seem to be necessary, as well as a strong look at the testing culture and environment.
