US conducts ‘successful’ THAAD missile test after latest North Korea missile launch
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The U.S. military on Sunday conducted a test of its THAAD anti-ballistic missile system, two days after North Korea launched its second intercontinental ballistic missile.
This test was expected after a warning from the U.S. Coast Guard last week. Earlier this month, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said it would be conducting two THAAD tests this month from Kodiak, Alaska. This is the second of the two tests.
The test comes as Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander, warned North Korea that U.S. and its allies are prepared to use “rapid, lethal and overwhelming force,” if necessary against the rogue nation.
“The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Army soldiers of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas, conducted a successful missile defense test today using the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system,” the Missile Defense Agency said in a statement on Sunday.
The medium-range target ballistic missile (MRBM) was launched over the Pacific Ocean and the THAAD weapon system tracked and intercepted it in Kodiak.
The latest launch comes in the wake of North Korea’s latest ICBM test. Analysts said flight data from the North’s second ICBM test, conducted Friday night, showed that a broader part of the mainland United States, including Los Angeles and Chicago, is now in range of Pyongyang’s weapons.
“North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability,” O’Shaughnessy said.
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