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Friday, May 25, 2007

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VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- A test of the nation's long-range missile defense system was aborted Friday when a target rocket failed to fly high enough to trigger the interceptor missile, officials said.

The dummy warhead, launched from Alaska, fell into the Pacific Ocean. The interceptor missile was at least eight minutes from launch in California and never fired, the Air Force said.

The interceptor was supposed to try to collide with the old intercontinental ballistic missile high over the Pacific.

The cause of the target failure, the first in the test program, was unknown.

The test will be repeated this summer, Lt. Gen. Henry Obering III, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said in a statement.

The tests have implications for a plan to expand the program to sites in the Czech Republic and Poland. The plan has raised ire in Moscow, which contends it encroaches too closely.

The U.S. is beginning negotiations with Poland to host 10 interceptors.

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