A test of key parts of an emerging U.S. anti-missile shield was scrubbed on Thursday because of bad weather in Kodiak, Alaska, where a target missile was to have been launched, the Defense Department said, according to Reuters. The $85 million test -- designed chiefly to collect data, rather than shoot down the target -- may be rescheduled for Friday or Saturday, said Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman. "Bad weather and lightning at Kodiak" forced the postponement, she said in an e-mail. The exercise would be the first involving a live target since ground-based interceptor rockets failed to leave their silos during tests in December 2004 and February 2005. It also would be the first since the interceptors, part of a layered shield that also includes naval and aerial components, were activated to guard against ballistic missiles test-fired on July 4 and 5 by North Korea. Boeing Co. is prime contractor for the ground-based mid-course defense, as the backbone is known. Major subcontractors include Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co. For the first time, the ground-based interceptor missile was to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California. Previous launches have been from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Although an intercept is possible, the main goal is "to collect data on overall system performance and interceptor sensor technology," said Richard Lehner, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.
