DATE=1/18/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=MISSILE TEST - L
NUMBER=2-258193
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=PENTAGON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT :
/// EDS: Test launch set for sometime after 9pm est.
Impact on warhead scheduled for about 9:30pm. Not yet
clear when results will be announced. ///
INTRO: The United States is set to make a key test of
a system designed to protect the country against
ballistic missiles Tuesday evening. Designers hope the
anti ballistic missile system will hit its target and
turn a dummy warhead into "bitty-bitty space dust"
(microscopic pieces). Program supporters say they
have already held one successful test last October.
Critics of the National Missile Defense say it will do
more to damage to arms control treaties than it will
to weapons headed toward the United States. V-O-A's
Jim Randle reports.
Text: The test begins with the launch of a
intercontinental ballistic missile from California.
An elaborate system of heat sensors in space, and
newly developed kinds of radar on earth track the
weapon while a new, advanced computer system plots
it's course, altitude and speed.
Twenty minutes into the test, a small, fast rocket
roars into space from a Pacific Island, aimed at
striking the dummy warhead while it is dropping out
of space, 190 kilometers above the earth.
Missile experts say one key objective of the test is
to see if the new battle management computer is up to
the demanding task of sorting out masses of data from
sensors and guiding the anti ballistic missile close
to the attacking warhead.
Once the so-called "kill vehicle" enters space, it is
supposed to use heat sensors and telescopes to find
the target, a computer to make sure it is the right
target and tremendous speed to destroy the unarmed
test warhead.
Defense officials say the tests are designed to give
President Clinton the technical information he needs
to decide next June if the system should be built and
deployed. Top Pentagon officials now estimate the
cost of the system at about 12-point-7 billion dollars
over the five years it will take to build the first
100 interceptors and radars to guide them.
A less elaborate test last October saw the weapon hit
its target. One more test is slated before the
President's deployment decision.
Nuclear-armed nations Russia and China are strongly
critical of the missile defense system, complaining
that it undermines the strategic balance that has
kept the peace for decades. Beijing and Moscow have
threatened to stop arms control efforts that have been
cutting the number of nuclear warheads, or to build
additional warheads if the U-S system is deployed. But
U-S officials say the system is capable only of
stopping a few missiles, the sort of attack that might
be launched by North Korea, not the thousands of
warheads that could be fired by Russian forces.
Missile proliferation expert Tim McCarthy says the
missile defense system enjoys strong political support
in the United States, particularly from Republican
members of Congress and Presidential candidates. He
says they think the threat from rogue nations is worse
than the political, economic and diplomatic cost of
the system.
/// McCarthy act ///
There is indeed a threat out there, and those
political impacts that might be seen from, for
example, the Chinese or the Russians, are not as
immediate,or as important as our lack of
defenses against,as say a North Korean missile.
/// end act ///
Mr, McCarthy is a senior analyst at the Center for
Proliferation Studies in Monterey, California. He says
U-S critics of the National Missile Defense system
express doubts about whether the system will work well
enough to be worth the billions of dollars it will
cost. (Signed)
NEB/PT
18-Jan-2000 20:44 PM EDT (19-Jan-2000 0144 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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