US tests missile defense system Putin once said threatens global strategic balance

As Reported  by Qods News Agency (Qodsna) The test on Monday saw a Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, designed to counter intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) threats, successfully intercept and destroy its designated target, the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said in a statement.

During the test, which was a first for the GMD since its first live-firing in 2017, the system attempted a salvo engagement, firing two interceptors intended to strike an ICBM-level target fired from 4000 miles away.

“This test was the first salvo engagement of a threat-representative ICBM target by two Ground Based Interceptors (GBI), which were designated GBI-Lead, and GBI-Trail for the test,” the MDA’s statement read.

The ICBM target was launched from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, while the

two interceptors were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on Monday morning.

“The GBI-Lead destroyed the reentry vehicle, as it was designed to do. The GBI-Trail then looked at the resulting debris and remaining objects, and, not finding any other reentry vehicles, selected the next ‘most lethal object’ it could identify, and struck that, precisely as it was designed to do.”

MDA Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel A. Greaves called the test a “critical milestone” for the US missile defense forces.

“The system worked exactly as it was designed to do, and the results of this test provide evidence of the practicable use of the salvo doctrine within missile defense,” he continued. “The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system is vitally important to the defense of our homeland, and this test demonstrates that we have a capable, credible deterrent against a very real threat.”