United Press International,
WASHINGTON: Is the drive to deploy a chain of ground-based anti-ballistic missile interceptors in Alaska faltering at the Pentagon? Do the Missile Defense Agency and the top policymakers at the Department of Defense believe that the 48 interceptors they are committed to deploying, one third of them by the end of this year, may not even work reliably? It is beginning to look that way.
Critics have charged for many months that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his top team have been rushing to deploy the ABM interceptors that are meant to guard against thermonuclear ballistic missile attacks on the United States from so-called “rogue” states like Iran or North Korea without sufficiently testing and developing their component parts.
Two of the last three tests of the interceptors failed when their rocket engines failed even to ignite in the first place. And that is the by far the easiest part of the engineering involved in the hugely expensive and technologically ground-breaking program. The rockets must then intercept the incoming missiles at a combined speed of up to 35,000 miles per hour or at least 17 times the speed of a fired bullet using the most advanced but also complex and potentially fragile electronic tracking and targeting equipment to do the job.
The interceptors have a 50 percent kill record in 10 tests where a strike on a mock enemy missile was possible. The last three tests have failed.
Read Full Article Here
