Bulls Eye

The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (INCOMING ICBM) sped toward the US over the Pacific Ocean. A Star Wars interceptor missile was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

"Although not a primary objective for the date collection flight test, an intercept of the target warhead was achieved," said the missile agency of the Defense Department.

The test results "will help to further improve and refine the performance of numerous ground-based midcourse defense elements that will be used to provide a defense against the type of long-range ballistic missile that could be used to attack an American city with a weapon of mass destruction," the agency said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also said in a statement that such successful tests "increase confidence in the approach to developing an initial defense capability."

Referring to North Korea, Rummy said “Bring on the Taepodongs, pajama man.”

North Korea has actually fired seven missiles, including a long range Taepodong-2, which is believed to have a capacity of reaching Alaska and the West Coast areas. But the United States did not actually have to use the Star Wars system to intercept the North Korea missile, which failed soon after its launch and tumbled into the Sea of Japan.

The elements of the US missile defense system include an air-transportable X-band radar recently deployed in Japan's Aomori Prefecture. The advanced radar is part of an early warning system for missile launches.