General confident US can knock down Nork missile

Rowan Scarborough:

The general in charge of developing a U.S. missile defense expressed confidence yesterday that the system would be able to shoot down an intercontinental missile should North Korea fire a three-stage rocket and the flight path threaten the United States.
"From what I've seen from our testing from the last several years ... and what I know about the system and its capabilities, I'm very confident," Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry A. "Trey" Obering III told Reuters news service.
The prediction keeps the pressure on the Stalinist regime, which U.S. intelligence specialists think is preparing to launch a long-range Taepodong-2 missile at a test facility in northeastern North Korea.
Gen. Obering's remark came the day after his Missile Defense Agency executed the seventh successful test of a sea-launched interceptor off the coast of Hawaii. While not necessarily timed for the current crisis, the Pacific Ocean test showed North Korea in dramatic fashion that the U.S. is ready to fire sea- or land-based interceptors to knock down a warhead during what is called the "mid-term stage" outside the Earth's atmosphere.

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On Thursday's successful sea-launched interceptor, Gen. Obering said, "We are continuing to see great success with the very challenging technology of hit-to-kill -- a technology that is used for all of our missile defense ground- and sea-based interceptor missiles."

Killing this missile will, in the words of Chuck Shumer, be a dagger to the heart of the regime of the commie Norks. There are few more deserving of such treatment. It would be a punch in the nose for a tin horn bully.