THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503290423
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
A test of Pentagon and Navy technology for intercepting a ballistic missile attack failed Tuesday, the Pentagon reported, leaving the future of the Navy's fledgling missile defense program in doubt.
A target missile was launched from NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia, while the Navy cruiser Richmond K. Turner, stationed off the coast of North Carolina, launched an interceptor missile, the Pentagon said in a statement.
A special projectile called a kinetic kill vehicle - or KKV - mounted atop the Navy missile was supposed to track and collide with the attacker, destroying it. The Pentagon said the kill vehicle ``was ejected without power and an intercept did not occur. The cause of the malfunction cannot be determined until post-mission analysis is complete.''
The statement said that the performance of the Navy missile was normal through its boost, second stage, nose cone ejection and third-stage separation. And the projectile ``appears to have observed the target just prior to KKV ejection,'' the statement said.
A similar experiment failed last month because a software problem in the KKV projectile forced the missile out of position, and it did not complete the intercept.
A defense official said the Navy had funds for just two test firings. And the Richmond K. Turner, the only available ship equipped to fire the modified interceptor missile, is to be decommissioned next month.
The program, in which the Navy and the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization cooperate, is one of several military experiments under way to find a way to counter battlefield, or short-range, enemy ballistic missiles. by CNB