US Shoots Down Mock Warhead Over Pacific

WASHINGTON (CBS/AP) —The Pentagon says it has shot down a mock warhead over the Pacific in a success for America's missile defense program.

The test was the first of its kind in nearly three years. And it was the first test ever targeting an intercontinental-range missile like North Korea is developing.

The military says an interceptor rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California slammed into the warhead as it traveled outside the Earth's atmosphere after being launched from a test range on a Pacific atoll.

"That's a big deal," Jack Tomarchio told Eyewitness News.

Tomarchio is a retired Army colonel who served as an undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush.

"The message here is we are serious about defending our homeland," Tomarchio said of the missile launch.

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