25 October 2001

Several Ballistic Missile Defense Tests Halted, Rumsfeld Says

Washington -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the United States has held up scheduled ballistic missile defense tests to avoid any chance of violating the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.

The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) halted tests of shipboard missile tracking systems slated for October 24 and November 14, Rumsfeld said October 25 at a Pentagon briefing.

Rumsfeld said the Bush administration has warned for some time that U.S. ballistic missile defense testing would "bump up into" the 1972 ABM Treaty between the United States and Russia. "That has now happened," he said.

"This fact, this reality it seems to me, provides an impetus for the discussions that President Bush has been having with [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, and which will continue here in Washington early next month," he said.

Putin is scheduled early in November to visit New York, Washington and President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch to discuss the ABM Treaty and the U.S. research, development and testing program among other issues, Rumsfeld said.

But Rumsfeld said that discussions between U.S. and Russian leaders and negotiators are continuing, and he did not want a question raised by some suggesting the United States is violating the terms of the ABM Treaty through some programmed research and testing.

The United States had maintained that it could not fully research, develop and test a ballistic missile defense system while still adhering to the 1972 Treaty, Rumsfeld said.