In the wake of the London bombings, with the specter of terrorism facing America, the nation will once again turn to a missile defense shield. So reports John J. Lumpkin for the AP.

Flight tests of the nation's missile defense system will not resume until this fall at the earliest as the military revamps the program following two failures in the past seven months, a military official says.

The military may conduct two tests by year's end, with the earliest possibly this fall, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no schedule has been announced.

[...]

The delay further protracts Pentagon efforts to validate a multibillion-dollar program that supporters say will help protect the nation from intercontinental ballistic missiles. Critics say that claim remains unproven.

Even though the military occasionally activates interceptor bases in Alaska and California, they are not yet on around-the-clock alert as envisioned. The system has not had a successful intercept of a target since October 2002. Three tests have ended in failure.

The Bush administration had said the system would be working by the end of 2004.

While Congress is still quabbling over whether to restore a few hundred million dollars of funding to protect America's mass transit system from London-like attacks, more testing on missile defense.