1.   A congressional inquiry into reports of corporate fraud has found widespread technical failures in a prototype anti-missile sensor meant to track enemy warheads.

2.   A mock enemy warhead was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

3.   But this would-be weapon still stars in a push to shield the United States from enemy warheads.

4.   Experts still had concerns whether the interceptors could adequately distinguish enemy warheads from decoys.

5.   Hit-to-kill technology depended on a nonexplosive interceptor packed with sensors to find an enemy warhead and destroy it simply by crashing into it.

6.   In war, an interceptor rocket would fire a small spacecraft known as a kill vehicle, which would scan the heavens for enemy warheads.

7.   It is meant to fly into space atop an interceptor rocket and smash apart enemy warheads by force of impact.

8.   Onboard tracking systems would take over during the final seconds as the interceptor homed in on the enemy warhead.

9.   Schwartz accused her employer of faking work on the sensor, which is meant to distinguish enemy warheads from decoys.

10.   Still, even its staunchest backers acknowledge that the kill vehicle is blind to enemy warheads for most of its flight.