America's shield against intermediate range ballistic missiles continued its unbroken record of hits Tuesday, with a successful test in which a target missile was shot down over the Pacific Ocean by an interceptor missile launched from Alaska.
"This was the 14th successful intercept in 14 attempts for the THAAD weapon system," said the U.S. Missile Defense Agency in a release early Tuesday morning.
THAAD, or the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, is designed to shoot down missiles with a range of fewer than 3,400 miles.
In the latest test, a target missile designed to mimic the threat from North Korea was launched from a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane flying over the Pacific Ocean, north of Hawaii.
It was "detected, tracked and intercepted" by a THAAD anti-missile battery in Kodiak, Alaska.