Missile shield test deemed successful

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- A U.S. missile shield system successfully shot down an incoming test missile in a simulated attack by a "rogue state" such as Iran, officials said.

U.S. Missile Defense Agency officials said the target missile was launched from Kodiak Island, Alaska, Friday, tracked by several radars and intercepted by a "kill vehicle" 25 minutes later, 1,860 miles away over the Pacific ocean, The Washington Post reported.

"It was the largest, most complex test we have ever done," Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, chief of the Missile Defense Agency, told a Pentagon news conference after the test. "The key to our protection … is to be able to have all of these different sensors simultaneously tracking" and recognizing the same object, he said, adding Friday's test "does give us great confidence."

The test, however, did not include having the test missile send out decoys, which missile defense critics say is a key shortcoming of the technology, the Post said.

The test was the 13th by a ground-based interceptor since 1999, part of a missile defense program that has cost approximately $100 billion, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. Eight of those tests have successful, officials said.