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US Pentagon Report Questions Missile Defense Plan
A classified report by a Defense Department-appointed panel of experts has raised concerns about the speed of US plans to deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system by 2005, including doubts whether interceptors can yet distinguish between armed warheads and decoys, The Washington Post reported.
The report was given to Defense Secretary William Cohen last week by an independent panel headed by retired General Larry Welch, former Air Force chief of staff, the newspaper said in Sunday editions.
It questioned the current maturity of the technology, raising concerns about the problem of dummy decoys launched with attacking missiles, and about pressure from the US Congress for fast-track 2005 deployment of a yet-unproved system.
Decoys are designed to fool defensive projectiles attempting to shoot down nuclear or other warheads approaching the target.
The Post said that the report from the panel pointed to problems over whether the system could distinguish between real attacking missiles and decoys in space and concern that the timetable for constructing a working system in five years is unrealistic.
The panel, which serves independently under Defense Secretary William Cohen, had extensive access to secret information. The panel, which also includes experts from industry and retired senior military officers had been giving lengthy briefings on its conclusions to Pentagon officials, the newspaper added.
The US military is scheduled to attempt for a third time in early July to shoot down a dummy warhead high over the Pacific Ocean with a test "hit-to-kill" weapon fired from a Pacific atoll.
The first such test last October was successful, although there was a problem with finding the approaching warhead. A second such test failed early this year.
Clinton is expected to decide this year whether to break ground next spring to start building a powerful radar station in Alaska State in the first phase of an NMD shield to be operational by 2005.
The international community has opposed the NMD, which would either breach or require major changes to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the then Soviet Union, a cornerstone of arms control.
Arms control experts said the US plan to set up the NMD system runs against the trend of the times and will have a major adverse impact on global and regional strategic balances and stability.
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