Son of Star Wars deployed in Alaska

THE US is preparing to install a ground-based interceptor in Alaska’s interior - the first component of a national defence system designed to shoot down enemy missiles.

Crews at Fort Greely prepared to lower the 17-meter-long, three-stage interceptor into one of six silos built behind a double perimeter fence reinforced by heavy barbed wire.

“We’re coming to the end of an era where we have not been able to defend our country against long-range ballistic missile attacks,” said Major General John Holly, who heads the ground-based missile defence programme for the Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency.

Five additional interceptors will be installed at the 280-hectare complex with another four at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by the end of the year.

Ten more will be installed at Fort Greely by late 2005, launching the Bush administration’s multibillion-dollar system.

Missile defence is an essential part of US President George W Bush’s national security policy. It has not been as politically divisive as President Ronald Reagan’s more elaborate Star Wars programme, but Democrats complain the administration is spending billions to deploy interceptors without conducting adequate tests to see if they will even work.