Pentagon Plans to Double National Missile Defense Interceptors

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will ask Congress this year for money to significantly expand its planned national missile defense system, setting up a potential battle with legislators who say the ground-based system that remains under development should first be demonstrated to work under realistic conditions (see GSN, Feb. 3).

“I think it’s safe to say that this is going to be a contentious issue. … Why the heck should we get more pregnant on this thing when we haven’t tested it?” said a Democratic congressional aide who asked to not be identified.

Under previously funded plans, the Missile Defense Agency intends to place 20 interceptors at Ft. Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California during fiscal 2004 and fiscal 2005. In addition, the agency intends to deploy 10 sea-based interceptors, down from 20 projected last year, by October 2005.

The new plans, described in a fiscal 2005 budget document released Monday, would potentially double the number of ground-based missile interceptors from 20 to 40. The plans call for acquiring up to 10 additional missile interceptors and silos at Ft. Greely, Alaska, and up to 10 interceptors for a still-undisclosed third site. The additional systems would be fielded during fiscal years 2006 and 2007.

The budget document does not specify the cost of the additional systems. It projects, though, an overall cost increase of $4.8 billion for the fiscal 2006-7 block of activities, for which some funding is sought for next fiscal year.

Last year, two key Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee said they had received Republican assurance — in exchange for their support of the initial fielding — that the system would be rigorously operationally tested before any additional missiles were fielded.

In a joint statement last May, Representatives John Spratt (D-S.C.) and Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) said they were promised that committee leaders would urge the Bush administration to ensure “that after the initial deployment of 20 ground-based interceptors and up to 20 sea-based interceptors, the Pentagon will rigorously test BMD [ballistic missile defense] systems and comply with initial test and operational evaluation requirements prior to further BMD deployments” (see GSN, May 16, 2003).

In the end, however, the committee’s guidance to the House defense authorization bill only urged the military to fully test the system for suitability and effectiveness before making the missiles operational.

“That’s what we’ll hang our hat on,” the aide said.

Last year, the Missile Defense Agency eliminated nine intercept tests from the system’s future test schedule, as officials cited a shortage of missiles and other factors. 

Thomas Christie, the Pentagon’s top testing official, reported last month that he was currently unable to evaluate the planned system’s operational capability because of the limited testing conducted so far on the missile interceptors (see GSN, Jan. 22).

U.S. law permits the Pentagon to deploy new weapons systems on a limited basis before their testing is complete, but the congressional aide said it would be difficult for the administration to argue that the additional missile interceptors and the new launch site would conform to existing rules on building untested weapons.

The current law allows for a major defense program to conduct “limited low-rate production” prior to completing operational testing for suitability and effectiveness.

The law says, however, that programs cannot proceed beyond low-rate initial production “until initial operational test and evaluation of the program is completed.” 

The law defines low-rate initial production as the minimum quantity necessary to conduct operational testing, to establish an initial production base for the system, and “to permit an orderly increase in the production rate for the system sufficient to lead to full-rate production upon the successful completion of operational testing.”

A GSN story yesterday, “Bush National Missile Defense System Will Lack Missiles At Start,” incorrectly reported that while campaigning for president in 2000, President George W. Bush had specified a time for deploying a national missile defense system. On Sept. 1, 2000, Bush criticized then-President Bill Clinton for leaving “this important unfinished business for the next president” and vowed to deploy “at the earliest possible date.”

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