October 11, 2005 :: Washington Times :: Analysis
Roughly one year after the first interceptors of the ground-based missile defense system were placed into their silos, the Senate Appropriations Committee has completed an important review of missile defense expenditures and goals, and the appropriations bill has now moved onto the House. James Hackett writes in the Washington Times summarizing the progress made in missile defense over the past several years, and what remains to be done.
Hackett notes in particular, and with just praise, the Senate Committee’s support and additional funding for completing the GMD midcourse interceptor program begun in Alaska and California, their additional funding of the Airborne Laser, and also of the relative cutbacks for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI), a ground-based boost defense system whose worthy aim to destroy a missile in its boost phase requires that the interceptor be placed quite near the enemy missile’s launch site. The pursuit of faster interceptors is a laudable technological pursuit, as is boost-phase intercept—but land-basing raises too high the standard of being in the right place at the right time for the interceptor to be practical or widely useful. Writes Hackett, “Many think this an infeasible chimera that would waste resources needed to complete and improve more practical defenses.”
Hackett concludes that “the House should accept the Senate’s missile defense changes.” (Article)
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