DATE=3/7/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=MISSILE DEFENSE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-259938
BYLINE=JON TKACH
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A senior U-S defense official says scientists
know how to fix the problems that caused a test of the
national missile defense program to fail in January.
During a Capitol Hill briefing (Tuesday) sponsored by
a conservative lobbying group (the Lexington
Institute), missile defense proponents said the
program is on track for a 2005 deadline. But as V-O-
A's Jon Tkach [kotch] reports, U-S policymakers are
still plagued by worries that the program could spur
another arms race.
TEXT: Even the staunchest supporters of a national
missile defense program say it will still take a lot
of work to get a system up and running. Opponents say
it is going to take a scientific miracle.
But Major General Peter Franklin of the Defense
Department's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization
says the military is handling the technical problems
that caused an interceptor rocket to miss a mock-enemy
warhead over the Pacific Ocean in January.
/// FRANKLIN ACT ///
We know how to fix this and we will on
subsequent flights.
/// END ACT ///
The project, a scaled down version of President
Reagan's proposed "Star Wars" plan of the 1980's,
faces bitter opposition from Russia and China.
Washington's European allies have also voiced concern,
and even the program's backers say its deployment
could violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
But Republican Senator John Kyl [kile] says too much
is at stake for U-S leaders to be constrained by the
28-year-old treaty, which he calls "out of date."
/// KYL ACT ///
So let us be honest, let us be up front let's
understand that the treaty is inconsistent with
the kind of deployment that we must have and it
is inconsistent with the kind of future
technology that we need to be able to develop.
/// END ACT ///
But Democratic Congressman John Spratt says Washington
needs to move cautiously. He says diplomacy has
actually gotten rid of more missiles than any defense
program in the works could ever hope to shoot down.
The director of space policy at the Federation of
American Scientists - John Pike - told V-O-A in a
telephone interview that Washington has very little
diplomatic room to maneuver on the issue. He says, in
the end, the system will only make the world a more
dangerous place.
/// PIKE ACT ///
It doesn't really matter how much money we spend
on missile defense, all we're going to wind up
with is more missiles pointed at America.
/// END ACT ///
President Clinton is due to decide in June whether to
give a formal go-ahead on deployment of the project.
It is expected to cost nearly 13-billion dollars over
the next six years.
NEB/JON/gm
07-Mar-2000 17:30 PM EDT (07-Mar-2000 2230 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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