BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The costly and controversial plan for a missile defense system has hit a snag. A prototype missile interceptor was supposed to take out a mock warhead late last night, but the hit never happened. For more, live to the Pentagon, our military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre on this front -- Jamie.</s>JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pentagon officials cautioned all along there's no guarantee of success in what is a very difficult technological challenge. Nevertheless, they were hoping for two in a row. Instead, they're looking at a miss, this morning, in trying to figure out what happened. The test began as scheduled last night when about 20 minutes after 9:00 Eastern Time a target rocket with a mock warhead was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California out over the pacific. About 20 minutes later, from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, about 4,000 miles away, an interceptor rocket -- this is the rocket that has the new technology that's supposed to be able to seek out incoming warheads and destroy them more than 100 miles in space -- was also launched in the direction of the target missile. What happened next? The Pentagon's not sure. It could simply say only that "an intercept was not achieved" and that we will conduct a comprehensive review to find out which part of this very sophisticated system that includes ground radars and space sensors went wrong and did not allow that intercept to happen. Now, the...</s>HEMMER: Jamie, I apologize. I'm going to have to interrupt here. The attorney now is speaking there in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Let's go back there live, and we hope to pick up Jamie a little later.
Costly, Controversial Ballistic Missile Interceptor Fails Second Test Last Night