DATE=1/14/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUNDER
TITLE=MISSILE DEFENSE TEST
NUMBER=5-45252
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
/// Eds: Test set for some time after 9pm
EST Tuesday ///
INTRO: U-S efforts to build a nation-wide defense
against ballistic missiles face a key test next
Tuesday. Engineers hope their defensive missile can
track and destroy another missile high above the
Pacific Ocean. Supporters say the program is a vital
defense against missiles launched from rogue countries
such as North Korea. Critics say U-S domestic
politics make it likely the system will be approved
regardless of the test results. V-O-A's Jim Randle
reports from the Pentagon.
TEXT: A senior defense official says Tuesday's effort
will begin when an intercontinental ballistic missile
thunders into space from a launch pad in California.
About 20 minutes later, a second missile will be
launched from an island in the mid-Pacific, to find
the first missile and crash into it at more than 20-
thousand kilometers per hour.
The proposed U-S National Missile Defense, (or N-M-
D),.uses satellites to spot the fast-moving, searing
heat of a missile launch, and new kinds of ground-
based radar to track the weapon through space.
Pentagon experts say N-M-D uses a swift, three-stage
rocket to hurl a small robot spacecraft on a suicidal
collision course with the target.
The spacecraft is called a "kill vehicle" and it is
about a meter and a half tall, and weighs about the
same as a small man.
A brand new, powerful computer is supposed to take all
of the sensor information, and repeatedly calculate
ever more accurate predictions of the course, speed,
and altitude of the target.
This information is designed to allow defenders to get
the kill vehicle reasonably close to the target. Once
in space, the kill vehicle uses heat sensors,
telescopes and a computer to track the target, and
small rocket thrusters to maneuver on a collision
course.
Testing the new radar systems, the "battle management"
computer - and hitting the target -- are major goals
of Tuesday's 100-million dollar exercise.
The new test comes as critics say Pentagon officials
exaggerated the success of a previous test last
October. In that case, the navigation system broke
down, and critics say the weapon relied on "luck" to
strike its target.
A senior defense official denies that, and says the
point of tests is not to hit every target, but to find
and fix flaws in the staggeringly complex system.
Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon says the tests are also
supposed to give the president enough information to
decide if the government will spend the many billions
of dollars needed to develop and build the system.
/// Bacon Act ///
This is a very high priority program. We are
working very hard in this building to give the
president the information he needs from the
technical side to make a decision.
/// End Act ///
That decision is expected next June. If approved, the
system would consist of one hundred missile
interceptors and take about five years to build.
/// Begin Opt ///
The National Missile Defense is designed to cover all
50 U-S states. A smaller scale system - called
Theater Missile Defense - could put a defensive
umbrella over a small country. But the T-M-D program
has been troubled by a string of embarrassing test
failures, and is not yet ready to deploy. The Patriot
Missile system has been used in battle (the Gulf war
of 1991) against crude Iraqi Scud missiles with
limited success. Defense experts say the Patriot
system has since been upgraded, and may be able to
defend a city or an airfield against short-range
missile attack.
/// End Opt ///
Defense expert John Pike of the Federation of American
Scientists says the president faces political as well
as technical questions.
/// Pike Act ///
Even if this test fails though, there is so much
political support in the Congress and growing
support in the administration for deploying a
missile defense, that I think even if this next
test fails, that we are probably going to see
President Clinton commit to deploy this system
and they will hope to work out the bugs a few
years down the road.
/// End Act ///
Many Republican members of Congress and candidates for
president strongly support missile defenses, saying it
is irresponsible not to build defenses against a
threat that could kill millions of Americans if it is
technically possible to do so.
But critics say the task of hitting an incoming
ballistic missile is so difficult that such defenses
will not work, or can easily be fooled by decoys (fake
warheads) launched with real warheads.
Russian officials are sharply critical of the U-S
plan, saying the missile defenses violate the 1972
Anti Ballistic Missile treaty that puts sharp limits
on such systems.
They say the system would cost billions of dollars and
make Americans less safe by undermining the nuclear
deterrence that has kept the peace over decades.
(Signed).
NEB/JR/JP
14-Jan-2000 17:16 PM EDT (14-Jan-2000 2216 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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