US conventional missile passes nightime test

The Defense Department has conducted the first successful night flight of a Tomahawak cruise missile, a Pentagon spokesman reports. Describing the nighttime launch of the conventional -- or non nuclear -- land-attack missile as a "major milestone," the spokesman said the test over the New Mexico White Sands missile range proved the missile's capability to illuminate and identify a target before it attacks the target. An air-launched cruise had never been tested at night.