Missle defense nonsense

I'm pretty skeptical about this:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military shot down a target ballistic missile over the Pacific on Friday in the widest test of its emerging antimissile shield in 18 months, the Defense Department announced.

First, I wouldn't put it past the Pentagon outright lying about the result. But, even if there's some element of truth to this press release, I suspect the test was highly rigged to favor the shootdown--e.g., the shooters knew the exact time and location of the target before it was launched, the target took no defensive maneuvers, etc. None of these circumstances are likely to exist when the antimissle defense is actually needed.