The Army's theater missile-defense system, despite a first
successful flight test last month, still faces serious technical problems
because of its reliance on parts that may be faulty, according to a new
government report.
The General Accounting Office report says the Pentagon took important
strides last year in reorganizing the $3.8-billion program, a forerunner
to a larger program aimed at shielding the entire nation from a missile
attack.
Yet the interceptor missiles it would use "remain a concern" because
most components were produced before the reorganization, when quality
control was inadequate, the report asserts.
The Theater High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, program also is
intended to protect U.S. troops and heavy equipment in such international
hot spots as the Korean peninsula. It has been a focus of a national
debate over the feasibility of a defensive system in which missiles knock
down other missiles while both are traveling at extremely high speeds.
Last month, after six failed tests, advocates claimed a breakthrough
in this Star Wars-like technology when a THAAD interceptor collided with
a 20-foot missile high above the New Mexico desert.
But the new report says Lockheed Martin, the contractor, has not taken
steps to guarantee that the key parts will function in future tests. Of
the major components, it says, only the seeker--the part used to locate
and track the target missile--was built after 1996, when the quality
controls were improved.
After the fifth failed test, in May 1998, the contractor reevaluated
or retested the parts, according to the report. But it contended that
this was not a sufficient substitute for building parts with sufficient
quality controls.
And it quoted the Pentagon's director for Operational Test and
Evaluation as saying that until new equipment is built, "there is no
reason to expect any improvement in the THAAD interceptors' performance."
Before the successful test, the THAAD program had failed an earlier
attempt, in March, because of a flawed component, the report asserted.
A spokeswoman for the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense
Organization, which oversees the program, said officials are "very
confident" that the parts are, in fact, up to quality standards.
John Pike, a defense analyst at the Federation of American Scientists,
said quality standards are especially important in an anti-missile
program, since one missed missile could cause huge numbers of casualties.
"Missile defense has uniquely high performance requirements," he said,
adding that the THAAD program has much to prove, given its record of past
failures.
Republicans in Congress have been pushing the Clinton administration
to deploy such a system, saying that it is urgently needed as countries
such as North Korea and Iran develop missiles with ever-longer ranges.
The administration has been far less enthusiastic, worrying about the
technical feasibility of such an expensive venture.
But in the last year, as the North Koreans and others have shown
evidence of progress in their offensive programs, the administration has
gradually grown more receptive.
Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved
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