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U.S. Expected to Activate Missile Defense System After Presidential Election, Official Says By David Ruppe WASHINGTON — The activation of initial components of the national missile defense system planned by President George W. Bush will probably occur at least six to eight weeks from now, a senior U.S. military official said today, placing it well after the Nov. 2 presidential election (see GSN, Oct. 13). The components are undergoing a final “shakedown” to make last-minute adjustments that could take up to two months, said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John Holly, program director for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, speaking at an event here sponsored by the National Defense University Foundation. Holly said the decision to begin “initial defensive operations” probably would be made by Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “I would argue it’s probably the president and the secretary of defense that make the decision of when we actually go operational, given the advice of the Joint Staff and the combatant commanders involved. They’ll make that decision about what’s the right point in time,” he said. “In the absence of a compelling threat,” that decision is not likely to be made before the end of the shakedown period, Holly said. Holly was not specific about what would occur during the shakedown period. “We’ll work our way through and identify things that need to be changed and tweaked,” he said. Critics have charged the planned deployment, ordered by Bush in December 2002 to occur by the end of 2004, is politically motivated. They argue the system currently offers little or no defensive capability, noting that missile defense has not been subjected to realistic operational testing, numerous flight tests have been delayed, and key radars and satellite systems may not be ready for years (see GSN, Sept. 30). The initial components are expected to include at least six interceptor missiles based at Fort Greely, Alaska; potentially two interceptors at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; satellite, ground- and sea-based radar; and massive communications and command and control hardware at sites across the West Coast and the Pacific. “We’re not done yet, we’re in a start mode,” Holly said. Military officials had anticipated the system would be activated on Oct. 1, which is the beginning of this fiscal year and about one month before the presidential elections. Rumsfeld and former Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish had “further refined” Bush’s goal of the end of 2004 “to mean 1 Oct. 2004,” an Air Force Space Command officer said in an unusually candid presentation on the subject last year. Rumsfeld in August said he did not remember setting the date and that there was no firm deadline for the deployment (see GSN, Aug. 19).
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