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VAFB interceptor misses its target

By Janene Scully/Associate Editor

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Ian Gonzaga/Staff A long range interceptor missile rises above the smoke as it is launched from VAFB on Sunday. 1/31/10

A ground-based interceptor missile blasted off Sunday afternoon from Vandenberg Air Force Base but missed its target after a key radar system didn’t do its job.

Initial results indicate that the approximately $120 million test of the nation’s missile-defense system failed because a Sea-Based X-Band Radar didn’t perform as expected, Missile Defense Agency officials said about three hours after the test.

“Program officials will conduct an extensive investigation to determine the cause of the failure to intercept,” MDA officials said in a written statement.

More information won’t be available for at least a few days, and the investigation could take at least two months, said spokesman Richard Lehner. As typically happens after a test failure, the data has been frozen for the investigation team’s analysis.

Confirmation of the failed intercept came hours after about 200 people, including uniformed soldiers and airmen as well as families with picnics and pet dogs, had gathered Sunday afternoon at the Ronald W. Reagan Missile Defense Site — a north Vandenberg hilltop overlooking missile silos — to see the afternoon launch.

After a brief delay, the target weapon launched from the Kwajalein Atoll about 3:40 p.m. A few minutes later a three-stage interceptor vehicle was sent skyward from an underground silo at Vandenberg.

The interceptor rose quickly from its launch site, surrounded by green hillsides, and climbed into blue sky as onlookers craned their necks to see. A smattering of applause greeted the weapon’s departure.

This was the first test for a Vandenberg interceptor against a target launched from Kwajalein, and MDA officials say it was designed as more of a head-on collision, “a more challenging engagement” than the side-to-side hit the system has achieved in the past.

The powerful radar that is designed to detect and track targets provides the data necessary for the complex Ground-based Midcourse Defense segment. It’s one of several key elements that make up the system

For Sunday’s test, the sea-based radar — which looks like a huge golf ball sitting on an old oil platform in the ocean — was designed as the “sole tracking sensor responsible for data” during the engagement between the target and interceptor.

The ground-based missile-defense interceptors at Vandenberg and Fort Greely, Alaska, are designed to protect against limited long-range attack from a rogue nation, military officials say.

Opponents contend the system launched a new arms race, with the Santa Barbara-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation labeling the test “dangerous, destabilizing and provocative.”

“Missile defense testing by the United States does not make our country more secure...” said David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. “The United States continues throwing billions of dollars into the bottomless pit of missile defense, a technology that remains largely ineffective. ... Such scenarios destabilize relations with other countries and waste taxpayer dollars.”

On Sunday, security forces detained eight of 11 people who gathered near the base’s main entrance to protest the missile-defense test. Seven of them were cited and released, but one, who continued to refuse to give his name, was taken into custody and booked into the Lompoc jail, according to Vandenberg officials.

One woman ended up being taken to the hospital after complaining her shoulder had been injured while she was handcuffed.