US missile shield test sends $85m up in smoke

Million of dollars went up in smoke yesterday when the first test in nearly two years of a multi-billion dollar US anti-missile shield failed when the interceptor missile shut down as it prepared to launch in the Pacific.

About 16 minutes earlier, a target missile carrying a mock warhead had been successfully fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska, according to the Missile Defence Agency. The aborted $85m (€63m) test appeared likely to set back plans for activation of a rudimentary bulwark against long-range ballistic missiles that could be fired by countries like North Korea.

In 2002, US president George Bush pledged to have initial elements of the programme up and running by the end of this year, while testing and development continued.