WASHINGTON: US defence officials affirmed their commitment to a $1bn expansion of a Boeing Co ground-based missile defence system despite a test failure this month, but called for more regular testing to get a grip on nagging quality control issues.
James Miller, undersecretary of defence for policy, and Missile Defence Agency Director Vice Admiral James Syring, on Wednesday underscored the importance of the missile defence program, citing the escalating threat posed by advances in missile development by North Korea and Iran.
Miller told an event sponsored by the Air Force Association that the July 5 failure of the only US defence against long-range ballistic missiles, the third consecutive intercept test failure, was surprising and involved an “unusual anomaly.”
He confirmed that the interceptor, which is built by Raytheon Co, failed to separate from the third stage of the rocket, but gave no further details. It is designed to hit and destroy the target warhead outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
Republican lawmakers have seized on the test failure to argue against reductions in spending on missile defence by the Obama administration. While the failure has sharpened concerns about the program voiced over the years by Democrats.
Senator Richard Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who heads the defence appropriations subcommittee, told a hearing that the US government had spent about $150bn on missile defence systems since the 1980s, and lawmakers wanted to see successful tests before agreeing to an expansion.
“What troubles me is this is a system that still hasn’t been proven to be able to protect America,” Durbin said.
Miller said he believed the failure to separate was “something that ought to be relatively easily resolvable” and he remained confident in the overall missile defence system.
He said the Pentagon still planned to add 14 ground-based interceptors, or GBIs, to the 30 interceptors already in place in Alaska and California by fiscal 2017, and was keeping its options open to add more.
Miller said he favoured more frequent testing “both as a matter of good acquisition and maintenance practice, and as a demonstration that these systems work.”
But he chafed at suggestions by Republicans that funding cuts had contributed to the recent test failure, saying after his speech, that the Missile Defence Agency had determined the pace of testing.
The previous test to intercept a dummy warhead was in 2008, although other non-intercept tests have been done since then.
Miller said he would like to see both the CE-I interceptor involved in the failed July test and a newer CE-II interceptor, which has suffered two test failures of its own, tested again with the next 12 months, and preferably sooner.
REUTERS
