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U.S. Plans: Work on Alaska Site to Begin in June U.S. Missile Defense Agency Director Lt.-Gen. Ronald Kadish has said work on underground missile interceptor silos at a site in Alaska is expected to begin June 14, the day after the United States officially withdraws from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, April 30). In an attempt to make the site ready by 2004 in the event of an emergency, builders will construct five interceptor silos and affiliated communications systems at Fort Greely over the summer, according to AP. Fort Greely is primarily intended for use as a land-based missile interceptor test site, AP reported. The U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty will also allow a greater range of technologies in missile defense tests and in components of a missile defense system, Kadish said in an AP interview yesterday. One example is the planned use of ship-based Aegis radar in a missile intercept test scheduled for late July. The use of the Aegis radar “was specifically prohibited by the treaty, so it’s never been done before,” Kadish said. The U.S. military is also expected to increase research on several technologies that were previously restricted by the ABM Treaty, including space-based lasers and missile interceptors, he said. “We’re going to start working in earnest over the next five to seven years,” Kadish said (Associated Press/New York Times, May 15). Additional Test Sites The MDA has begun environmental impact studies at two sites to examine their suitability for launching missile interceptors and targets in tests for the ground-based midcourse defense program, agency officials said last week. The agency is examining expanding tests at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to include launching interceptors, an agency official said (see GSN, April 8). Currently, only targets are launched from the base, the official said. The agency is also examining using Kodiak Island off the coast of Alaska as a launch site for both interceptors and targets, the official said. The environmental studies will probably be completed by the fall, according to Defense Daily. Kadish has said there are benefits of using Vandenberg and Kodiak as flight test sites to collect expanded information on the performance of interceptors and other ground-based midcourse defense system components, Defense Daily reported. Expanded testing at the two sites, however, would not begin immediately, an agency official said. “The earliest you could launch missiles from either of the locations would be after 2004, if the environmental process allows that to occur,” the official said. Agency officials have also begun choosing parameters — such as decoys — for the next interceptor test, according to Defense Daily. In the last test, the agency launched an interceptor prototype against a target and three balloon decoys (see GSN, March 20). The next target scenario could be similar or changed to use different decoys, the official said, adding that testers will not make a decision until a mission readiness review at the end of May (Kerry Gildea, Defense Daily, May 10).
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