Honestly, reading this I think some reporting is being done wrong here.
The usual method is to fire the ICBM from Vandenberg toward the Pacific, away from the American mainland.
Interceptors as fired from Kwajelein attempt to destroy the ICBM.
During this test it was the other way around? ICBM fired from Kwajelein toward the continental USA? Interceptors fired from Vandenberg?
Thanks to Freeper:
"US Military Shoots ICBM Target Out of the Sky in Missile Defense Test"
"Missiles shot from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base successfully destroyed an airborne target Monday (March 25) as part of a U.S. missile defense test... The target was an intercontinental ballistic missile launched from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, about 4,000 miles (6,440 kilometers) from Vandenberg. During the test, sensors in space, on the ground and at sea helped guide two ground-based interceptors (GBI) fired from Vandenberg. The first interceptor destroyed the target, a re-entry vehicle, while the second one searched the remaining debris for other threatening objects."
TEST IS DEEMED A SUCCESS!
WHAT EXACTLY WOULD OCCUR IF THE INTERCEPTORS DID NOT FLY STRAIGHT-AND-TRUE? SPACE JUNK OF A LETHAL VARIETY DESCENDING ON A MAJOR AMERICAN WEST COAST CITY WITH ALL THAT COULD MEAN?
"THREATENING OBJECTS" AS DEFINED PRESUMABLY TO BE INTERCEPTED BY THE SECOND MISSILE SO DANGER TO ANY POPULATED AREA OF WEST COAST USA MITIGATED? THIS WAS THE HOPE?
coolbert.