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Limited Testing Reduces Confidence in Planned U.S. Missile Interceptors, Pentagon Report Says
Immature technologies and limited testing opportunities will make it difficult for the U.S. Defense Department to assess the capabilities of U.S. missile defense systems set to be deployed by October, the Pentagon’s top technology tester said yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 24, 2003). “At this point, it is not clear what mission capability will be demonstrated prior to initial defensive operations,” said director of operational test and evaluation Thomas Christie in an annual report released yesterday. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system is scheduled to be deployed by October and is set to consist of 10 missile interceptors based in Alaska and California. Christie acknowledged publicly for the first time that the system is intended to counter North Korea’s missile threat, a purpose that was well understood but never explicitly stated until yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has conducted five successful intercept tests so far, but they involved early versions of system’s components that were matched against simplified targets, Christie’s report says. Only two more intercept tests are scheduled before the first interceptors will be deployed. “Even with successful intercepts in both these attempts, the small number of tests would limit confidence” that the system would succeed as a whole, the report says. Missile defense critics heralded Christie’s report and said it supports their view that the October deadline was established for political reasons. The report “makes it clear that in a rush to win an ideological victory, President [George W.] Bush risks prematurely deploying a missile defense system by 2004 that is technologically unproven and will drain resources from other essential priorities,” said Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.). The Pentagon acknowledged the limited nature of the planned initial system, but defended the program and deployment schedule. “Our objective is to continue to improve this capability while at the same time reducing system limitations,” said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick Lehner. “This will be done by flight and ground testing that will take place over many years,” he added (Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Jan. 22).
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