control center in Alaska remotely launched the interceptor missile from California . The `` initial indications , '' according to the Defense Department , are that all components of Friday 's test performed as designed . Critics have long complained that the tests are not realistic because they do n't involve balloons or other simple decoys that , they argue , could easily fool the interceptor . Watch a report on the defense system Â '' In Friday 's test , however , the target was a mock warhead and was supposed to be accompanied by `` countermeasures similar to what Iran or North Korea could deploy , '' according to a missile defense agency official . The intention was for the interceptor 's kill vehicle to distinguish the target from the decoys . But the decoy that was supposed to deploy to test the system did not . The Pentagon blamed a 40-year-old target system . `` Countermeasures are very difficult to deploy . We have had trouble deploying them in the past , '' said Lt. Gen. Patrick J. O'Reilly , director for the Missile Defense Agency . But O'Reilly said that the interceptor did differentiate between the
WASHINGTON -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A missile shield test was a `` smashing success , '' Pentagon officials said Friday , despite the failure of the test to put to rest concerns that the interceptor might not be able to differentiate between real missiles and decoys . Eight of the United States ' 13 missile defense tests have been deemed a success . The ground-based interceptor missile , launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California , destroyed a long-range ballistic missile launched from Kodiak , Alaska , the Defense Department 's Missile Defense Agency said . But one key aspect of the test -- to see whether the system could tell the difference between a missile and a decoy aimed at confounding its `` seek '' systems -- failed because the decoy did not deploy . Officials told CNN on Thursday that Friday 's test would be the most realistic of 13 missile shield system tests conducted to date . Eight of the 13 tests have now been deemed a success by the Pentagon . Watch a Pentagon spokesman explain the Friday 's problem Â '' This was the first test in which a crew at an alternate fire