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Rumsfeld Directs Missile Defense to Operate Oct. 1 By David Ruppe WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has quietly ordered elements of a long-range missile defense system to begin operating on Oct. 1, four weeks before the 2004 presidential election, according to a U.S. military official (see GSN, July 2). Rumsfeld’s order appears to be a closely held secret. Representatives from the Office of Secretary of Defense, the Missile Defense Agency, and the Strategic Command contacted by Global Security Newswire either insisted that no such order exists, said they were unaware of one, or referred questions to other sections of the Defense Department. Rumsfeld issued the directive, called a “warning order,” on an undisclosed date following a determination by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the system’s readiness and need for activation, according to the official, who requested anonymity. “A message has been sent out into the field to commence initial defensive operations on 1 October of this year,” the official said July 2. The order schedules initial operation of ground-based interceptors, radar and other equipment a month and a day before the Nov. 2 Election Day, when voters will decide whether to give President George W. Bush a second term. It implements Bush’s less-specific December 2002 classified directive to “begin deployment of a set of missile defense capabilities in 2004.” In March, U.S. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) accused the administration of timing the initial operations of the system, still under development and missing key technologies, for political purposes. Then-Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen Ronald Kadish disputed that, saying the Sept. 30 goal for preparing the system for initial operations was set for “internal management purposes” and was not politically motivated (see GSN, March 26). Another agency official said recently that “vulnerability,” not politics is driving the deployment. “A lot of people think we have missile defense capability now. We don’t. What this will allow us to do is having a system that we are still testing that we know has some capability — some is better than nothing at this point — to defend ourselves if somebody shoots at us,” said the agency’s Deputy for Test and Assessment Brig. Gen. Mark Shackelford in a June 18 presentation. Office of Secretary of Defense spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin last month said in an e-mail that operation of the system would begin this year but that “There is no ‘date specific.’” Yesterday, she refused to comment on the matter and referred additional questions to Missile Defense Agency spokesman Richard Lehner. Lehner in a July 2 e-mail said there was “No determination yet from combatant commands on when alert status would begin.” Yesterday, he again denied knowledge of the warning order. “I can honestly tell you that I haven’t seen or heard anything regarding any type of direction or “warning order” regarding IDO [initial defensive operations] beginning on 1 October or any other date,” he said. Lehner said further in an e-mail that questions about the system’s operation are outside the purview of his agency and rest with “U.S. Strategic Command, U.S. Northern Command, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others.” A spokesperson at U.S. Strategic Command, which will be responsible for overall operation of the system, referred Global Security Newswire to Irwin. The source for this story said the Office of Secretary of Defense should be able to provide detail on the order, “since a decision has been made.” Lehner said that the Missile Defense Agency is not rushing to meet any particular deadline to have the system ready for operation. “MDA is proceeding in a very orderly and disciplined manner to provide to the combatant commanders what is necessary for having an initial defensive capability starting this year, and I’ve not seen any indication of any ‘rush’ or increased tempo for beginning operations in order to meet a specific calendar date,” he said by e-mail. The agency, which is managing development and production of the missile defense system, aims to have in place five ground-based interceptor missiles at Fort Greely, Alaska, by the end of September, Lehner said, along with command and control, battle management and communications infrastructure, and land- and ship-based radar. “We are on track to do that,” he said. Critics have argued the system is not ready for deployment because key technologies will be missing, and the Pentagon’s top testing official has said the system is not sufficiently developed for testing under operationally realistic conditions (see GSN, June 8). Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumed Democratic nominee for president, in a June 3 speech said the deployment would be a costly waste of money. “We cannot afford to spend billions to deploy an unproven missile defense system. Not only is it not ready, but it’s the wrong priority for a war on terror,” he said. The Missile Defense Agency’s Shackelford, however, said the agency believes the system would be capable of handling a North Korean missile attack. “The analysis that we’ve done, the testing we’ve done to date leads us to believe that our system is effective against the sophistication of the threat that we would expect to come from North Korea,” he said.
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