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CNN Sunday Morning

Pentagon Conducts a Successful Missile Intercept Test

Aired July 15, 2001 - 08:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the Pentagon is batting 500 now after the successful overnight interception of a test missile high over the Pacific Ocean. This is the second success in four tries, and it's a safe bet there were a lot of fingers crossed in the Bush administration over this one.

CNN's Kelly Wallace joins us from the White House with the details and the reaction. Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brian. Well, Brian, while U.S. officials try to downplay the significance of this test, there were very big implications, because a failure would have emboldened President Bush's critics in the United States who say that this technology does not work and that it is much too expensive. Whereas as a success gives the Bush administration momentum, as it says it will go forward trying to get a missile defense system up and running by 2004.

Now, the test got under way Saturday evening when a target missile equipped with a mock warhead was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. About 20 minutes later, an interceptor was launched from an island in the Pacific Ocean about 4,800 miles away. And then, at about 11:09 p.m. Eastern daylight time, the interceptor collided with that mock warhead, creating a wide explosion about 150 miles above the Earth's surface.

Now, the Pentagon's director of missile defense systems says that data still needs to be analyzed, but right now he seems to say that this test was a success.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. RONALD KADISH, BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE ORGANIZATION: The early indications we have is that everything worked in what we call a nominal mode, which is what is expected. However, these tests take many weeks to deduce the data, but we believe we have a successful test in all aspects at this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Now, of the three tests conducted previously since 1999, only one had been a success. The stakes, though, not as high for this test as in those previous tests, which were conducted during the Clinton administration, because President Bush, unlike the former president, has said he is absolutely 100 percent committed to going forward with the missile defense system, even if some initial tests are failures.

The next test, Brian, is scheduled for October -- Brian.

NELSON: Thanks, Kelly. CNN's Kelly Wallace at the White House.

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