US missile shield test fails

The first test in nearly two years of a multi-billion-dollar US anti-missile shield failed on Wednesday when the interceptor missile shut down as it prepared to launch in the central Pacific, the Pentagon said.

About 16 minutes earlier, a target missile carrying a mock warhead had been successfully fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska, according to a statement from the Missile Defense Agency. The aborted test appeared likely to set back plans for activation of a bulwark against long-range ballistic missiles. 8212;Reuters