The U.S. Missile Defense Agency today announced a successful test interception of an intermediate range ballistic missile. The test was of something called the "Ground-Based Midcourse Defense." The press release explains, "The GMD element of the Missile Defense System defends the U.S. homeland against ballistic missile threats from rogue Nations such as North Korea and Iran. It provides the Commander, USNORTHCOM the capability to engage and destroy intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile threats to the U.S. homeland. Though the United States maintains the right to defend itself against attacks from any source, GMD is neither intended for, nor capable of, defeating large and sophisticated ICBM, air-, or sea-launched ballistic missile threats from Russia and the People's Republic of China."
The Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, which flagged the news as a
"tremendous success," notes that the interceptors come from silos at Fort Greely, Alaska.
I get a special pleasure out of these successes in part because of how confidently the "experts" once assured us that missile defense could never work.