WASHINGTON, Dec 6: The Pentagon said it successfully intercepted a long-range missile target on Friday in a simulated attack to test the defence system it wants to expand in Eastern Europe to counter attacks from North Korea or Iran.

“This was the largest, most complex task that we’ve ever done,” said Lieutenant-General Patrick O’Reilly, director of the Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency.

But the target missile’s countermeasures, intended to simulate decoys from enemy missiles precisely what critics of the defence shield doubt the system could overcome failed to deploy, he said.

“Countermeasures are very difficult to deploy,” he said, adding that “there are many threats today that don’t have countermeasures.”

The interception took place at 3:29 pm (2029 GMT), Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, making the effort the eighth successful intercept out of the 13 tests conducted since 1999, with the last successful test taking place in September 2007.

Overall military chiefs approved of the effort.

“I am extremely pleased,” said O’Reilly at a press briefing.

“All the systems were working together,” he added, referring to the complex alignment of radars, sensors and timing to coordinate the high-octane missile.

Brian Green, deputy assistant secretary of defence for strategic capabilities, added that the effort was an “operationally realistic test.”

The effectiveness of the

defence shield has been questioned by some scientists who claim the programme would be unable to distinguish between a missile and a decoy precisely what failed to be realised in Friday’s effort.

The test is seen as a crucial step towards a controversial anti-missile shield Washington plans to base in Eastern Europe.

The Bush administration wants to install a radar facility in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in neighbouring Poland by 2014.

The test of the project, which so far has cost the Defence Department some $100 billion, comes at a critical time before president-elect Barack Obama moves into the White House on Jan 20.

Obama has so far not committed to the missile defence shield.

One of his senior foreign poli cy advisors, Denis McDonough, has indicated however that Obama would support the programme if the technology proves viable. Moscow has repeatedly voiced strong objections to the shield plan, which Washington insists is not directed against Russia but at “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea.—AFP