The $100 million test involved a modified Minuteman 2 missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California with a dummy warhead. It was to be destroyed by a "kill vehicle" atop an interceptor rocket that was launched minutes later from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 4,000 miles (6,435 kilometers) away.
But the "kill vehicle" never separated from the interceptor rocket and both splashed into the Pacific.
Watch video of the January 18, 2000 National Missile Defense (NMD) test launch.
Pentagon investigators say an "avionics processor controller" that was on top of the booster malfunctioned during the test. The controller never sent commands for the kill vehicle to separate from the rest of the rocket and chase the dummy warhead.
"We don't know exactly why that happenedbut more importantly we haven't figured out how to respond to it," Bacon said.
There is no backup controller system on the interceptors used in the tests and program officials are trying to decide how best to increase their odds of success for the next NMD test. That test has been delayed from October to December.
"They're trying to figure out a work-around," Bacon said.
Pentagon officials were hoping a successful test would clear the way for President Clinton to decide by this fall whether to the deploy the NMD before 2005, a year when some speculate that nations such as North Korea or Iraq might possess missiles capable of threatening the United States. A fully deployed NMD would feature 100 interceptor missiles designed to knock out a "limited" attack of no more than 20 or so missiles.
Critics say the NMD, if deployed, would raise tensions worldwide by violating the terms of the 1972 Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty signed by the United States and the former Soviet Union. Russia and China have made no secret to their opposition to the NMD.
A new U.S. intelligence report estimates that China might increase its arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles from the current 20 to as many as 200 by 2015, the New York Times reported Thursday. That in turn could prompt India and Pakistan to build up their own nuclear arsenals.
"China has been in the process of modernizing its strategic forces for some time, long before the National Missile Defense became a front-burner issue," Bacon said. "Whether or not the U.S. decides to deploy it, I suspect China will continue its modernization."
The United States will continue its discussions with Russia, China and North Korea in an attempt to allay their fears over the NMD.
"This is a system that isn't a threat to anyone," Bacon said.
advertisement
