January 28, 2000
Web posted at: 10:33 PM EST (0333 GMT)

From Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen told a group of defense writers Friday that in the January 18 test of national missile defense technology, a prototype interceptor missile came within 100 feet of hitting a target warhead over the Pacific Ocean.

Pentagon officials had said the day after the failed test that the interceptor came close to hitting the target, but they didn't give an exact distance.

At a briefing January 19, officials said that a preliminary analysis suggested a failure by heat sensors in the final six seconds caused the interceptor to miss the mock warhead.

The "kill vehicle" is designed to lock onto the incoming warhead by using a pair of infrared sensors that locate the warm warhead in the cold of space.

Both sensors apparently failed, something officials said had not happened in any previous test.

The next test is scheduled for April or May.

In June the Pentagon is to report to President Clinton on the technological feasibility of a limited national missile defense.

President Clinton is to decide by the summer whether or not to start building the first stage of a defensive shield that would aim to protect all 50 states from a small-scale missile attack by a "rogue nation."