That was the year that the General Accounting Office announced that the 1984 successful test had actually been faked. As a result of that maneuver the target missile appeared to be 2.1 times its normal size to the sensors aboard the interceptor, thus more than doubling the chance that the interceptor would hit the target. It worked and the rest is history. Commenting on the test, Brig. Also secret was the fact that the test was rigged.
History repeats itself with seeming inevitability.
Pentagon officials in charge of the program put a positive spin on the failure, something that they get better and better at the more failures there are. That's not all we're going to spend, however. He is not daunted by the fact that there have been six failures and that the Chinese and the Russians view its development as a violation of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. He thinks it will enhance his standing with the military. He's probably right.