Proposed missile system can only shoot down modern rockets
It seems a US missile defence system similar to that intended for Poland that is upsetting Russia at the moment can only shoot down modern weapons:
The Pentagon was forced to abort a bid to shoot down a long-range missile over the Pacific Friday when it failed to fly high enough to engage the missile defense system, US officials said.Given that Russia probably has a lot of older missiles lying around, it obviously shouldn’t be a problem for them if they want to pop off a missile or two. On the other hand why any EU country would want to install such a system is a bit of a puzzle. A defence system which consists of a grand total of ten missiles only capable of shooting down high-powered hardware seems a bit pointless, don’t you think?“The target did not reach sufficient altitude to be deemed a threat and so the Ballistic Missile Defense System did not engage it, as designed,” said Air Force Lieutenant General Henry Obering…
...But Obering said there was “always a risk of this occurrence since we are flying old intercontinental ballistic missile motors in our targets.
“We have initiated a target modernization program within our existing budget, which should mitigate these risks for the future,” he said, adding the agency would try to repeat the test later this summer.
(Yes, I know the US claims the defence is against Iran – I hope they know what state the Iranian rocket motors are in, they didn’t get it right on WMD in Iraq, did they?)