Electrical Leak Suspected in U.S. Missile’s Failure

An electrical leak from a battery may have prevented a Raytheon Co. warhead from separating from its booster rocket in a missile-defense test that failed in July, according to findings emerging from a Pentagon review.

The “most likely root causes” are a combination of electrical leakage during activation of the warhead’s battery after launch and the “susceptibility of some” components to such leaks, according to a Jan. 23 letter to Congress that wasn’t previously made public.