Editor's Note: Here we go again, the "son of star wars" is redefined.
The following article claims that the missile defense system currently being
tested is designed to counter a threat from North Korea. This is just another
marketing ploy by the Pentagon to maintain funding for a failed program that
leading scientists say will never work.-smg
Go to Original
Missile Test Shuts Down and Delays U.S. Shield
Reuters
Wednesday 15 December 2004
System is designed to counter possible North Korea threat.
WASHINGTON - The first test in nearly two years of a multibillion-dollar U.S.
antimissile shield failed on Wednesday when the interceptor missile shut down
as it prepared to launch in the central Pacific, the Defense Department said.
About 16 minutes earlier, a target missile carrying a mock warhead had been
successfully fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska, according to a statement from
the Missile Defense Agency.
An "anomaly" of unknown origin caused the interceptor to shut down
automatically in its silo at the Kwajalein Test Range in the Marshall Islands,
said Richard Lehner, a spokesman for the Pentagon's missile agency.
The aborted $85 million test appeared likely to set back plans for activation
of a rudimentary bulwark against long-range ballistic missiles that could be
fired by countries like North Korea.
Pentagon officials had hoped the test would set the stage for any decision
by President George W. Bush to put the system on alert in coming weeks.
Initially, the system is designed to counter North Korean missiles that could
be tipped with nuclear, chemical or germ weapons.
On Dec. 8, in reply to a question about switching the system on, Michael Wynne,
the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, said the plan was "not constrained
by timing, exactly." But he said officials would await the test and "then
we'll see from there."
In 2002, Bush pledged to have initial elements of the program up and running
by the end of 2004 while testing and development continued. The system is a
scaled-down version of a ballistic missile shield first outlined in March 1983
by President Ronald Reagan.
The test followed a week of delays caused by weather and technical glitches,
including malfunction of an internal battery aboard the target missile on Tuesday,
Lehner said.
In an e-mail exchange, Philip Coyle, the Pentagon's chief weapons tester under
Reagan, called the failed test "a serious setback for a program that had
not attempted a flight intercept test for two years."
Because the mission was to have tested new hardware, software and engagement
scenarios, it was termed a "flyby," not an attempted intercept.
This meant gathering data was the primary goal, not downing the target, according
to the Missile Defense Agency.
When a shoot-down has been the chief test objective, the system so far has
succeeded five out of eight times in highly scripted conditions.
The last test, attempted in December 2002, misfired when the warhead - a 120-pound,
or 55-kilogram, "kill vehicle" of sensors, chips and thrusters designed
to pulverize its target on collision - failed to separate from its booster rocket.
Boeing, as prime contractor, put together the ground-based shield, which is
to be folded into a system involving airborne, sea- and space-based elements.
The Pentagon is spending $10 billion a year on the project.
-------
Jump to TO Features for Thursday December 16, 2004
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Print This Story
E-mail This Story