14:11 GMT, March 18, 2009 The Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Army soldiers from the 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, Fort Bliss, Texas, completed a successful intercept of a ballistic missile target during a test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense element of the nation's Ballistic Missile Defense System March 17 at approximately 2:30 p.m. Hawaii time (8:30 p.m. EDT) at the Pacific Missile Range Facility off the island of Kauai in Hawaii.

Preliminary indications are that planned flight test objectives were achieved. THAAD is a mobile system now in development designed to intercept short to medium range ballistic missiles. Soldiers of the 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade conducted launcher, fire control and radar operations, using tactics, techniques and procedures developed by the U.S. Army Air Defense School.

The THAAD program is managed by the Missile Defense Agency in Washington, D.C., and executed by the THAAD Project Office in Huntsville, Ala.

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