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DATE=5/18/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=MISSILE DEFENSE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262540
BYLINE=JIM RANDLE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  Top Pentagon officials say it is premature to 
order an outside investigation of a controversial U-S 
missile defense program.  A prominent critic of 
Washington's efforts to build a system to shoot down 
attacking ballistic missiles says a key part of the 
scheme does not work and never will.  V-O-A's Jim 
Randle reports.
TEXT:  The critic is a professor of science and 
national security studies at the prestigious 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In a letter to White House officials, Professor 
Theodore Postol says contractors working for the 
Pentagon ignored test results that showed the system 
could not tell the difference between warheads and 
simple decoys designed to fool a key sensor in space.
Telling the difference is crucial because the proposed 
system's small number of missiles could be quickly 
exhausted if they are fired at harmless fakes instead 
of deadly warheads.
Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon says the military's 
experts are carefully reviewing Professor Postol's 
allegations.  Mr. Bacon says until that process is 
finished, it is too early to ask an outside panel of 
experts to review allegations that flight test data 
was presented dishonestly.
Mr. Bacon also says since that test, a new company has 
been chosen to build the interceptors and they are 
equipped with better computer programs and improved 
tools for finding targets.
            /// Bacon Act ///
      The Raytheon (new) interceptor has a different, 
      more advanced infrared sensor and ... it also 
      has an optical sensor.  So it has two ways to 
      acquire  (find) a target.  Optically, through a 
      visual sensor and infrared which senses heat.
            /// End Act ///
Officials say the next flight test is set for the end 
of June or the beginning of July, when the U-S 
military will once again fire a dummy missile warhead 
into space and once again try to track it, find it, 
and knock it down with what amounts to a smart bullet 
-- streaking along a couple hundred kilometers above 
the earth.
Defense Secretary William Cohen says he will use 
information from this test to make a recommendation to 
the president to build or scrap the national missile 
defense.
The program is strongly supported by the Republican 
Party majority in Congress, and adamantly opposed by 
officials in Beijing and Moscow.   (SIGNED)
NEB/JR/JP
18-May-2000 16:35 PM EDT (18-May-2000 2035 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.