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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 01, 2002

US Needs More Anti-missile Rockets: Official

The United States needs more anti-missile rockets as it prepares for possible military action against Iraq, the head of missile defense in the Pentagon said Thursday.


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The United States needs more anti-missile rockets as it prepares for possible military action against Iraq, the head of missile defense in the Pentagon said Thursday.

Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said the United States has only about 40 of its most advanced Patriot missiles to defend against short-range ballistic and cruise missiles.

Pentagon officials believe that Iraq alone has several times that many Scud and other short-range missiles.

Kadish said he would like to have many more of the advanced Patriots to counter threats from Iraq, North Korea, Iran and Libya."My recommendation is to buy PAC-3s as fast as we are able to buy them," Kadish told reporters, referring to the latest Patriot, known as Patriot Advanced Capability 3.

Congress has approved increasing PAC-3 production, adding 50 million dollars to the 622 million the Pentagon originally requested for the program for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

Pentagon officials have notified Congress they plan to shift another 120 million dollars from other missile defense programs to the PAC-3.

The PAC-3 missile is designed to shoot down cruise missiles and ballistic missiles with a range of 620 miles (or 990 kilometers) or less. Those include the Scud missiles that Iraq used a decade ago during the Gulf War.


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