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U.S. Missile Defense Testing Could Resume in Fall
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is preparing a new flight test schedule and could resume system testing in the fall, said agency spokesman Rick Lehner (see GSN, May 13). The Defense Department may not have a target missile ready, however, so the first exercise might not be an intercept test, the Associated Press reported today. In any case, the Pentagon will go ahead with plans to install 10 new interceptor missiles at Fort Greely, Alaska, officials said. The fledgling missile defense system has not had a successful intercept test since October 2002. “The system … has no demonstrated capability to defend the United States under realistic operational conditions,” said Philip Coyle, a former Defense Department testing chief. He added that 20 or 30 more developmental tests were needed before the system would be ready for realistic testing. “If it takes two or three years to get a success, at that rate, those 20 or 30 tests could take them 50 years. They obviously need to improve the pace as well as the realism, but they haven’t been able to do it,” he said (Associated Press/Baltimore Sun, July 11).
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