WASHINGTON -- An experimental missile defense system on Monday failed its most basic test for the sixth time, failing to hit a missile launched at a New Mexico test site.
While Monday's failure illustrates the daunting technical challenges that have yet to be overcome, it also raises questions about administration efforts to persuade its Asian allies to consider deploying a system that to date has never worked.Already, China has protested U.S. plans to set up theater missile defense systems with Japan, Korea and possibly Taiwan to protect allied and American troops based in northeast Asia.
"There is no question about the political sensitivity of China," said Gerrit Gong, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Analysts in Beijing and elsewhere who follow this should be somewhat relieved that this is a very complicated set of issues and technologies being developed that have to be worked out over time."
The test failure on Monday will cost the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp., $15 million in penalties. And if the system fails two more attempts to intercept missiles before June 30, the company will be penalized another $20 million.
The $3.89-billion program begun in the early 1990s has had a nearly unending series of setbacks. But on Monday, both the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin were upbeat about the tests.
"We came very close to hitting this target -- within 30 meters or less -- and we're very encouraged by that," said Thomas A. Corcoran, president and chief operating officer of the Lockheed Martin Space Sector. "Much of the operation was as it should be."
If Lockheed succeeds in its next tests and actually intercepts a missile for the first time, the firm will move into the next phase of engineering and manufacturing. The actual development of the system is still years away.