Space

DATE=7/13/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=PENTAGON / MISSILE DEFENSE (L)

NUMBER=2-278215

BYLINE=ALEX BELIDA

DATELINE=PENTAGON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The head of the U-S missile defense program says he is cautiously optimistic about Saturday's planned missile interceptor test over the Pacific. V-O-A Correspondent Alex Belida reports from the Pentagon.

TEXT: This is the Pentagon's first major missile defense test in more than a year. Two of the three previous tests of the controversial ground-based system failed to result in an interception.

Still, Air Force Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, head of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, predicts a better than 50-50 chance of success this time around.

But he also tells reporters at the Pentagon there will be more tests no matter what happens.

/// KADISH ACTUALITY 1 ///

This is one test in a series of tests and if it's successful, we'll gain confidence and if it fails, we will learn a lot.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

Saturday's test will cost 100-million dollars. A so-called "kill vehicle" interceptor will be launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific in an attempt to hit and destroy a missile launched from California.

General Kadish says there will be several more full-scale tests over the next 18 months - along with continued research and development of other types of missile defense systems, including sea-based interceptors and airborne lasers.

He says the aim is to construct a layered defense system using multiple components capable of hitting a missile immediately after its launch, during mid-flight and finally during the so-called terminal phase, shortly before a missile strikes its target.

To do this, the Bush administration is seeking several billion dollars in new funding for the coming fiscal year. It plans to develop new test facilities in Alaska that could eventually become part of an operational missile defense system. Ground-breaking is set for next month.

But General Kadish says Saturday's test is not intended to tell the world the United States has a working system ready to shoot down an incoming missile.

/// KADISH ACTUALITY 2 ///

And we're not trying to build and test a fully operational capability tomorrow (Saturday) and then turn around and put it on alert. That's not what we're doing tomorrow.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

The Bush administration says it wants a limited missile defense capability to prevent against possible attacks by rogue states like North Korea and Iraq.

But Russia, China, and even some NATO allies have expressed serious concerns about the program, charging it could trigger a new arms race. (Signed)

NEB/BEL/JWH