Missile defense exercise fails off Hawaii

A Japanese warship failed to shoot down a ballistic missile target in a joint test with US forces yesterday because of a glitch in the final stage of an interceptor made by Raytheon Co, a US military official said.

The kinetic warhead's infrared "seeker" lost track in the last few seconds of the $55 million test, about 160 km above Hawaiian waters, said US Rear Admiral Brad Hicks, program director of the Aegis sea-based leg of an emerging US anti-missile shield.

"This was a failure," he said in a teleconference with reporters. It brought the tally of Aegis intercepts to 16 in 20 tries.