*EPF212 12/04/2001
Pentagon Says Experimental Missile Defense Test A Success
(Result clears the way for more advanced testing, officials say) (480)

By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- An experimental missile interceptor successfully shot down a mock warhead 140 miles over the Pacific Ocean December 3 in the fifth U.S. missile defense test in the past two years, Pentagon officials say.

After the launch was postponed for two nights because of poor weather conditions, a successful launch of the experimental interceptor from a U.S. test facility on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands occurred 30 minutes after a modified Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), carrying a dummy warhead, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California at 9:59 p.m. EST (0259 GMT), Pentagon officials said.

"This was the third successful intercept for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Segment, formerly known as National Missile Defense," officials from the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) said in a prepared statement. The BMDO said it was specifically testing a ground-based missile interceptor designed to hit and kill an incoming ballistic missile in mid-flight.

The success of this test now permits the BMDO, which is the Defense Department agency tasked with developing a limited ballistic missile defense program for the United States, to begin more complex and realistic trials of the system.

"Tonight's test is a major step in our aggressive test program, and is the third successful intercept in five attempts," BMDO officials said. "We will continue to pursue this testing regime to achieve a layered approach to missile defense, using different architectures to deter the growing threat of ballistic missiles carrying weapons of mass destruction."

Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, BMDO director, said during a recent Pentagon briefing that the current test was designed only to evaluate certain aspects of the interceptor system. For one thing, he said, it will allow missile system engineers to begin using a wider array of decoys in the test scenarios.

"This was an important achievement," he said. "It means we can take the next step and make the tests more complex."

The missile defense program is also studying ways to hit and kill ICBMs during the initial boost phase and the terminal, or in-bound, phase of an enemy missile attack. The Bush administration has said it wants a missile defense system that can protect against the possible threat of a terrorist attack, or an attack by a rogue nation, using missiles tipped with nuclear weapons or chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.

Kadish said at the Pentagon briefing that this test, which cost approximately $100 million, is in compliance with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. The United States and Russia have been in serious negotiations in recent months over the terms of the Treaty and what the Bush administration has described as the need to move beyond the treaty that outlaws anti-ballistic missile systems.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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