Posted on 10/14/2004 9:29:19 AM PDT by No Surrender Monkey
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The military plans to place a sixth ballistic missile interceptor inside a silo at Fort Greely by the end of the month, as initial tests of a national defense system critics contend is highly flawed near their conclusion.
To prepare for activation, the military is conducting exercises at the Interior Alaska post, where five of the 55-foot-long rockets have been installed since July, as an essential component of the Bush administration's national security policy.
The first two interceptors destined for Vandenberg Air Force Base in California will go into existing silos in November, with two more scheduled to be deployed there next year and 10 more at Fort Greely.
"We're going through this shakedown period to make sure everything is working properly," Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, said Tuesday.
The ultimate decision on when the system should be activated lies with various commanders, including the U.S. Northern Command, the military force responsible for protecting the United States. Command officials will then brief the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before final approval, said Mike Kucharek, a spokesman for the Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The decision is expected before year's end, Kucharek said.
Until the system is deemed fully operational, interceptors will remain locked down, even as crews go through exercises, including communicating among a network of command centers at Fort Greely, Vandenberg and Colorado Springs.
The system has been criticized by Democrats and others for costing billions without adequately proving itself in tests.
As envisioned by defense officials, the interceptors will be linked to a network of satellites, radars, computers and command centers. In an attack, satellites would alert the Northern Command, triggering a response by interceptors topped with optical sensors called "kill vehicles," while a complex radar system would track incoming enemy missiles.
Critics say no one knows if the interceptors will work; in highly controlled tests, the interceptors have failed three of eight times.
"The system has no demonstrated capability that it would work in realistic conditions," said Philip Coyle, who was the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s former assistant secretary of operational test and evaluation in the Clinton administration. Coyle is now an adviser to the Center for Defense Information in Washington.
Failures have only led to better equipment designs, according to the system's advocates. "This is always going to be a work in progress," Lehner said. "We're constantly improving."
This has been in the works for years. Its not news to most Alaskans.
If John Kerry had his way, we'd be installing spitball launchers in Alaska.
If John Kerry had his way, we'd be installing spitball launchers in Alaska.
Criticism is for philosophy and art. The news media are branching out inappropriately and it is time to criticise the art of news.
That's all you need to know about the critics.
SDI comes forth....
God Bless Ronald Reagan's soul.
Whew! I thought this meant we were only going to have one missle in Alaska. That would be silly. Unless it was a reallllllly BIG one. With teeth n' stuff.
The project is well advanced. The state railroad is adding a spur to move the heavy stuff that now has to go on the inadequate roads by truck. Short spur maybe 150 miles across the north slope of the Alaska Range.
Wonder if these can hit North Korean test launches?
Would be cool to see it.
Well said northwesterly FReeper.
The railroad currently terminates in Fairbanks. Ft Greely is just "down the road a bit" and would cross no mountains... Lets all just hope they never hear:
"Hatrack,Hatrack, this is Jester, this is Jester - you have launch enable. Out"
The new route that is preferred is the foothills route. Fairbanks will become a spur if the railroad is continued to Canada. If the railroad is also continued to Siberia there will be a new city somewhere out to the west of Fairbanks. This is not a bad thing for Fairbanks, IMHO, since Fairbanks will still be the main supply center for interior Alaska and the North Slope, although some city leaders cannot bear the thought of Fairbanks being a spur when now it is a terminus.
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