Despite three previous successful tests, the interceptor missed the target missile in the test Wednesday off Hawaii.

A short-range Aries target missile was fired at 7:15 pm (0015 GMT Thursday) from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, followed two minutes later by the launch of an SM-3 interceptor missile from the cruiser USS Lake Erie.

"Preliminary indications are that the SM-3 interceptor missile deployed its kinetic warhead, but an intercept was not achieved," the Missile Defense Agency said in a statement.

The primary objective of the test was to evaluate the effectiveness of updated maneuver rockets that steer the warhead to its target, said Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the agency.

Lehner said it was too early to say what caused the miss.

"All we know is we did not have the intercept. The interceptor warhead aboard the missile deployed but we don't know why it didn't hit," he said.

"We conduct an analysis, hit or miss, almost on the scale with an aircraft investigation. We go through everything," he said.

"And the interceptor and the target are heavily instrumented so we have lots and lots of data to pour through. But it all has to be catalogued and arranged before you can begin to look at the mission profile as to what happened, hit or miss," he said.

The Pentagon has put the program on a fast track to meet the government's goal of deploying the first 20 of the interceptor missiles aboard US warships by 2005.

The system uses powerful Aegis targeting radars onboard the Lake Erie to track the target missile and guide the interceptor to a pulverizing collision with it in space.

In this test, an Aegis destroyer positioned closer to the target's launch site was used to detect it and relay data to cue the cruiser.

SPACE.WIRE