"The rocket motor and associated hardware are in support of a planned launch this summer," Ralph Scott, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, told the newspaper. The rocket motor will arrive in the early morning hours Wednesday at Kodiak Airport aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport, he said.

The upcoming launch is the first of three planned for this year by Alaska Aerospace Development Corp. and the Missile Defense Agency. It is likely to be a target for an interceptor fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the Mirror said.

The missile interceptor defense program is designed to test missiles in both earlier and later stages of flight from sites in the United States.

A missile was launched in February to test upgrades to the radar tracking system originating at Beal Air Force Base in northern California. However, it was not a target for another missile. The February test launch traveled 2,500 miles along the Pacific coast to the California-Mexico border, the report said.

The MDA said the government plans to spend $85 to $100 million for each test involving interceptors from Vandenberg and targets from Kodiak.

The system's main ballistic missile interceptor site is located at Fort Greely, with a total of 40 silos planned to be built. There are two interceptors based at Vandenberg.

The upcoming exercises follow a successful interceptor test last December at Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific. Previously, interceptor tests failed five out of 11 times, the Daily Mirror said.

Related Links
-