U.S. Plans to Speed Up the MD Deployment

The Washington Post (WP) reported yesterday by quoting the high-ranking administration officials that despite the technical defect and the strong international opposition, the U.S. administration decided to put into place a missile defense system (MD) before the end of President Bush’s current term in 2004.

According to the WP, the U.S. administration has been pressing the contractor, Boeing Co., for options to speed up the deployment of missile defenses, and Boeing Co. has made presentation on April 23 at the Pentagon. The U.S. high-ranking administration officials said that the options presented by Boeing were requested by the director of the Pentagon`s Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Lt. Gen. Ronald T. Kadish, and the missile defense manager, Maj. Gen. Willie B. Nance, in an effort to speed up the deployment. They also said that Boeing’s proposals are under `active consideration`.

Boeing suggested a first step to place five interceptor missiles in Alaska by March 2004.

Boeing said that after the deployment of a rudimentary MD system, it would be able to deploy 50 interceptors -

Boeing suggested that the five ballistic missiles, which planned be deployed in 2004, would have to rely on an upgraded version of existing early warning radars, instead of a new radar system. Boeing also proposed a second step which puts a missile tracking radar on a movable floating platform by November 2004. The U.S. administration said that the platform needed to have complementary system because it would be vulnerable to attack, according to a source.

Boeing also suggested the increase of the number of flight tests to speed up the MD deployment. The former Clinton administration had already tested three times for the National Missile Defense (NMD). The fourth test which is scheduled for August is postponed and the third test took place a year ago.

According to the WC’s analysis, the biggest obstacle for the U.S. administration is the high cost of each test, which runs about $ 75 million to $ 100 million.

A high-ranking U.S. administration official said that ``what the Department of Defense is doing is looking at optimal ways of getting pieces in place as soon as possible to deploy the MD system. Different companies, including Boeing, are pitching what they think they`re best suited to do." It seems that the U.S. is speeding up the MD deployment because it has made a decision to deploy the MD system regardless of the international opposition, including the conflict with Russia with regard to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Shin Chi-Young higgledy@donga.com