THAAD Missile Fails Test Again WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. (AP) -- An antimissile missile failed today for the sixth time to hit a flying target and the prime contractor will have to pay the government $15 million for the miss. It was not immediately known why the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense missile failed to intercept the target missile this morning, said Bob Hunt, spokesman for the Army program executive office for air and missile defense in Huntsville, Ala. ``The telemetry data is still coming in and they're still analyzing it,'' he said. Because the THAAD missile has repeatedly failed to hit its target, Congress revised its contract with Lockheed Martin Corp., making the company financially liable for any misses. ``Yes, Lockheed is going to pay us $15 million,'' Hunt said. The test was the ninth in a series of 13 flight tests for the THAAD missile program and the sixth attempt at intercepting a missile. The system has cost $3.8 billion so far. The target missile was launched from the northern end of the Army's restricted White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, said Jim Eckles, a White Sands spokesman. The target -- a modified Minuteman 2 missile called a Hera -- left behind a squiggly, colorful contrail seen as far away as Phoenix. The THAAD is designed to strike enemy missiles at higher altitudes than the Pac-3 antimissile missile, which for the first time hit a flying target missile March 15 over White Sands, officials said. The THAAD missile system is being developed to protect U.S. and allied troops from attacks by short- and medium-range missiles such as the Scuds used in the Middle East. The missile is designed to destroy, early in their flight, enemy missiles that could be carrying chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. There were four THAAD missile flight tests in 1995, two in 1996 and one each in 1997 and 1998.
