A ground-based interceptor breaks cloud cover, shortly after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in this September 1, 2006 file photo. The US military shot down a target ballistic missile over the Pacific on Friday in what it hailed as a wide-ranging test of its emerging anti-missile shield. "This was about as close as we can come to an end-to-end test of our long-range missile defense system," Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, told a Pentagon briefing. [Reuters]