More Tax Payer Robbery by Totalitarian Corporations who Run Government and Offense Industry

The $85 million test -- designed chiefly to collect data, rather than shoot down the target -- may be rescheduled for Friday or Saturday, said Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

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The exercise would be the first involving a live target since ground-based interceptor rockets failed to leave their silos during tests in December 2004 and February 2005.

It also would be the first since the interceptors, part of a layered shield that also includes naval and aerial components, were activated to guard against ballistic missiles test-fired on July 4 and 5 by North Korea.

Boeing Co. is prime contractor for the ground-based mid-course defense, as the backbone is known. Major subcontractors include Lockheed Martin Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co.

For the first time, the ground-based interceptor missile was to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California. Previous launches have been from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Although an intercept is possible, the main objective is "to collect data on overall system performance and interceptor sensor technology," said Richard Lehner, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.

In the 10 full-fledged flight intercept tests to date, only five have shot down target missiles. Still, Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, head of the Missile Defense Agency, has said he is confident the shield would have worked against a U.S.-bound North Korean missile if a decision had been made to shoot it down.