A Standard Missile-3 Block 1A interceptor is launched from the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie during a Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy test in the Pacific Ocean, Feb. 13, 2013.
February 14, 2013
Interceptors are not fool proof either.
...He was referring to about 30 ground-based missile interceptors, almost all of which are deployed in Alaska. The interceptors were developed during the administration of former President George W. Bush in response to North Korea's ballistic missile program....
That is not correct. The missile interceptors were in operation during the George H. W. Bush administration. They are the Patriot Missile System. They were deployed in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia specifically, during Gulf War I.
Two Washington-based analysts told VOA they are not sure how effective the interceptors will be.
“These interceptors in Alaska and California are believed to have some capability against a rudimentary intercontinental ballistic missile warhead of the kind that you would expect North Korea to have initially," said Steven Pifer, head of the Arms Control Initiative at the Brookings Institution. "But how good they would actually be, we don’t know. But there is some capability to protect America already deployed.”
James Acton of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said it is impossible to evaluate the interceptors without access to classified information....
That is not correct. The missile interceptors were in operation during the George H. W. Bush administration. They are the Patriot Missile System. They were deployed in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia specifically, during Gulf War I.
Two Washington-based analysts told VOA they are not sure how effective the interceptors will be.
“These interceptors in Alaska and California are believed to have some capability against a rudimentary intercontinental ballistic missile warhead of the kind that you would expect North Korea to have initially," said Steven Pifer, head of the Arms Control Initiative at the Brookings Institution. "But how good they would actually be, we don’t know. But there is some capability to protect America already deployed.”
James Acton of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said it is impossible to evaluate the interceptors without access to classified information....
