Space

DATE=7/10/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=PENTAGON/MISSILES (L ONLY)

NUMBER2-278088

BYLINE=ALEX BELIDA

DATELINE=PENTAGON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The Pentagon has confirmed its latest budget request to Congress includes funds to expand its missile defense test facilities. V-O-A Pentagon Correspondent Alex Belida reports these include sites in Alaska, where defense officials envision eventual deployment of an operational, ground-based missile interceptor system.

TEXT: Pentagon spokesman, Rear Admiral Craig Quigley, downplays concerns the Bush administration is poised to circumvent the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with its construction plans for Alaska.

Admiral Quigley says Alaska is merely being looked at as part of a more robust missile defense testing program.

///QUIGLEY ACTUALITY///

It [Alaska] is intended to be a test site. We intend to conduct a much more robust test program to develop the research and data and analysis that you need to test out different means of providing missile defense.

///END ACTUALITY///

But in response to reporters' questions, the Pentagon spokesman concedes the so-called "test beds" planned for Alaska could eventually become part of an operational missile defense system.

///QUIGLEY ACTUALITY///

But if the need arose and that's what the nation needed, we would do anything and everything we could to provide a [missile defense] capability.

//END ACTUALITY///

Admiral Quigley says the Alaska plans will not violate the A-B-M treaty. But he acknowledges both President Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld have said they are prepared to abandon the pact.

The Pentagon says its detailed plans for Alaska remain under study. But published news reports say officials envision a missile interceptor site as well as a launch site for test missiles.

At present, test missiles are launched from a base in California and the interceptors are fired at them from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific.

Defense officials are planning a test using those facilities this Saturday. It will be the fourth such full-scale intercept test. In two of the three previous tests, the so-called "kill vehicle" interceptor failed to hit the target missile.

///REST OPTIONAL///

The U-S effort to develop missile defenses has drawn criticism from Russia, China and some NATO countries who fear it could trigger a new arms race.

But the Bush administration has proposed significant increases in the defense budget for expanded research on missile defenses. In addition to a ground-based interceptor system, Pentagon officials are also exploring airborne and shipboard systems for knocking down missiles. (Signed)

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