The Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Air Force 30th Space Wing and U.S. Northern Command plan to conduct an interceptor flight test July 5 to exercise the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element of the nation's Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). The GMD element provides defense of the Homeland against the threat of limited long-range ballistic missile attacks.

The test involves launching a target missile from Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and an interceptor missile from Vandenberg AFB, Calif.  This will be an operational test of the first-generation Capability Enhancement I (CE-I) Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), currently deployed in Alaska and California, and will involve soldiers, sailors and airmen operating the system and providing test support.