DOD Won’t Confirm Intercept System Is Live

June 19, 2006

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It has been reported that the Pentagon has activated its new U.S. ground-based interceptor missile defense system however, speculation that poor weather conditions at the missile site indicate an immediate launch is unlikely. It has also been reported that two Navy Aegis warships are patrolling near North Korea as part of the U.S. global missile defense system.

The military would not say Monday whether the U.S. missile defense system has been put on alert to counter a potential North Korean missile launch.

“We do not talk about the operational status of any of the emplaced interceptors,” said Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for U.S. Northern Command, the command in charge of the defense of the United States homeland.

The ground-based mid-course interceptor system, in which a network of radars locates a launched enemy missile and then signals U.S. missiles to race outside the atmosphere to destroy them, has not yet been declared operational.