US $85m missile defence test launch fizzles again

ANOTHER $85 million (€65.5m) went up in smoke as President George W Bush’s planned ballistic missile shield went down the pan when an interceptor missile again failed to launch during a test of the US missile defence system.

The Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency said it could not complete the repeat of a failed December test after the interceptor missile failed to launch from its Pacific Ocean base.

The interceptor missile also failed to launch during a December 15 test, which officials later blamed on a “very minor software glitch”.

Indications pointed to a problem with the missile’s ground support equipment, rather than the missile itself, said Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the agency.

“There is no indication there is anything wrong with the actual interceptor,” said Lehner.

But the failure spelt more bad news for a programme that hasn’t met the Bush administration’s goal of declaring the system operational by the end of 2004.

Missile Defence Agency Director Lt Gen. Henry Obering last month said the system could offer some limited capability to protect against a ballistic missile attack, despite failures in four of its nine major tests.

But John Isaacs, president of the Council for a Liveable World, said the latest test failure proved the missile defence programme was “not ready for prime time”.

David Wright at the Union of Concerned Scientists said: “It’s as if Henry Ford started up his automobile production line and began selling cars without ever taking one for a test drive.”

Lehner said the inquiry would take weeks, but officials would decide within a week whether to reschedule the test, or proceed with a test planned in April. He said it would take 60 days to ready another target missile.