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U.S. Plans: Pentagon to Classify Interceptor Test Details By Kerry Boyd Agency officials said future integrated flight tests in the ground-based midcourse defense program will be classified, according to a Defense Daily report Wednesday. The agency will continue to inform the public about test successes or failures but will no longer release information on “targets and countermeasures,” agency spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Richard Lehner told the newsletter. The increasing complexity of the tests and concerns that U.S. adversaries might obtain sensitive information prompted the move, agency officials said. Two missile defense critics, however, said the agency is only trying to hide its inability to develop technology that can distinguish between targets and countermeasures (see GSN, April 10). “This has nothing to do with security. It has everything to do with hiding flaws,” Theodore Postol, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, told Global Security Newswire yesterday. The agency is trying to control criticism rather than provide answers, he said. David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who called the agency’s decision “ridiculous,” said missile defense testing is at a very early stage and does not mirror real-world threats. The targets and decoys used in the interecept tests are not intended to truly represent any potential enemy systems, he said. In the near future, the agency plans to deploy more balloons similar to those already used in tests, said Wright, who has used information from previous tests to question the missile defense program’s success (see GSN, March 15). There are “no great mysteries” in the current program, which suggests that there is no good reason to classify the information, he said. The agency’s decision appears to be intended to cover up problems in the program and “trying to mute criticism,” he said. The current missile defense program uses technology that simply does not work, Postol said, adding that by classifying information, the agency is “in effect admitting that they have no hope of dealing with decoys.” Postol and Wright said that if the agency classifies information on target sets, it will be more difficult for analysts to obtain information and to analyze the details of the agency’s work. Analysts will still “have no problem” raising questions about missile defense, Postol added.
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