A test of U.S. missile-defense has achieved a badly needed success in a rocket fired successfully collided with the ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean. As North Correia can deploy missiles the strength of you was missile defenses is important to the nation security. Up in the cone is applauding the test but there are still concerns about the reliability of the U.S. missile-defense system. Joining me is Laura Grego. Walked into the program. Thank you for having me. The missile launch yesterday has been described as a reconfigured rocket. Can you describe what is new about this rocket. Mainly consists of two parts. One is a booster which is the rocket launcher which gets the whole piece going fast enough about the atmosphere and eventually when he gets up into space it releases a smaller piece. That is the refrigerator size and that is meant to collide with incoming either target or a warhead and it uses small rockets so that it can direct himself into the path of the target so they would collide and destroy it with the force of impact. They've had problems over the years and the system has failed half of time. This is a rework of those small guidance of the system to get back on track. This is specifically a defensive weapon, right? That is right. It's meant to defend against ballistic missile threats from countries such as North Korea. The defense program have their share of failures through the year. This is test turn that around? It says that there are probably on the right track to fixing this problem that they've had with the kill vehicle. When you look at them -- the test record is about half successful and have failures. That test record has not been improving over time. Since the system was deployed in 2000 for, this marks the fourth success so there certainly albums that they continue to find every time they tested. That is their highest testing officials said that. Each time we test, we find new flaws. This is considered an advance prototype. A missile test like this has at least two purposes. One to see if the rocket works as it should but isn't the other a show of strength against North Korea? I have been asked about the timing of the test. They take many months to prepare. The timing is coincidental. They were just ready to finally test the system after three years of preparation. Certainly I don't think North Korea has been deterred from building and developing their own missiles. One might look at the other direction if you have a system with modest or low reliability, they might just choose to build more and better missiles so that increases the threat. Until the system is working very well it's not much of a credible deterrent. What is a union of concern stand on increasing military tensions between the USA North Korea? It is clearly a concern and very difficult problem to solve. I don't think that you can get out of solving it by building a missile-defense.'s never going to be effective enough to solve the problem. What is important is finding a way to engage North Korea into freezing their nuclear program and the missile program. We have a technical tools to verify whether or not North Korea's tested nuclear weapons that we have the technical tools to verify whether it is launching ballistic missiles. Those are very horrible -- there is creative thinking that we should pursue. Laura, you said that there will never be 100% reliable missile-defense system. The Pentagon is moving forward on this and they will be testing more of these missile defenses. What more needs to be done in order to make it more reliable than it is now? Where we are right now is developmental test. The system to really prove a capability needs to be tested and realistic. Real-world scenarios where desert the way that you would expect it to be used in real life where it is stressing conditions, the weather is bad, the adversary would include decoys and other countermeasures that will try to confuse the defense. So far we haven't tested the system in those situations. This test is the first one against the actual range ballistic missile. The other tests have been at slower speeds. We are just finally getting around to testing the system against a threat it's meant to defend against. It's a long slog. They are very expensive. This one was almost $250 million to conduct. They take a long time. So it's a big thing. The other thing that's important is to really look clear eyes at about what the system can do and what it can do. Really understand their limits and the ability to play a role in the security of the U.S. I've been speaking with Laura Grego . Thank you. My pleasure.
The Pentagon announced it has staged a test in which the military shot down a missile similar to the type that North Korea could someday use to threaten the United States.
NPR National Security Editor Philip Ewing reports for our Newscast unit on how Tuesday's test was conducted:
"First, a missile target took off from an island in the western Pacific.
"Sensors on the ground picked it up and guided an interceptor that blasted off from California. The military says that missile struck the target outside the Earth's atmosphere in what the Pentagon called 'a direct collision' — and destroyed it.
"The track record of the ballistic missile defense system in these tests is mixed, but the Pentagon says the hit shows that it's making progress.
"Defense and intelligence officials warn that North Korea is making progress toward threatening the U.S. with a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile — although they won't say when."
The test record for U.S. ballistic missile defense systems is mixed — before Tuesday, nine of 17 attempts by a system like this since 1999 have been successful.
The Navy's Aegis BMD system — in which a warship at sea launches against the ballistic missile target — has a better record, with 35 successful intercepts of 42 attempts, according to the Missile Defense Agency.
The test conducted by troops of the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base cost $244 million.
Philip E. Coyle is a former head of the Pentagon's test and evaluation office and a senior fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. He tells The Associated Press, "In several ways, this test was a $244 million-dollar baby step, a baby step that took three years."
Defense and intelligence leaders warn that it's only a matter of time before North Korea can miniaturize a nuclear weapon and put it onto a missile that might be able to reach the United States, although they will not say how long they believe that might take.
The North continues a program of testing missiles and developing nuclear weapons.
That's why missile defense advocates argue that the U.S. must continue working on a system that can defend U.S. allies in Asia and North America against potential launches; program critics argue it's a boondoggle whose failures have already proved it can't be trusted in the event of a crisis.
Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
