WASHINGTON -- Details are sketchy, but plenty of testing remains to be done before the Pentagon christens its rudimentary missile defense shield - an event scheduled to occur in September 2004.
"There are six to nine planned Ballistic Missile Defense System flight tests, which includes Missile Defense Agency-conducted tests, as well as one PAC-3, conducted by the Army, and one Arrow conducted by Israeli Ministry of Defense," said a Missile Defense Agency official.
The official said that most of the flights would involve intercepts of a target warhead and will "test multiple sensor systems and battle, control, command and communications." As well, he added, "there are several additional system-wide command, control and communication tests and war games planned before September '04."
There have already been sizable delays in the test schedule -- particularly in the development of a new booster rocket to carry the kill vehicle into space.
Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., and Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., are competing to produce the rockets and the Pentagon says it will use both contractors if tests go well.
Orbital has successfully tested its booster twice this year and Lockheed Martin is expected to try its rocket sometime this fall after some delays.
Philip Coyle, an analyst with the Center for Defense Information here, said he expects two booster tests this fall -- Integrated Flight Tests (IFT) 13A and 13B. IFT 13C will be a radar test that will likely occur in the winter. None of the flights will be intercept tests, Coyle said, but will test subsystems of the rocket and kill vehicle.
The Pentagon will start shooting at a target with IFT 14, which Coyle thinks will happen in the late winter.
"If other pieces slip [in the schedule] IFT 14 might not be until the spring," Coyle said.
The Pentagon canceled IFT 16 and replaced it with IFT 16A, which will be a radar-characterization test but thats running late, Coyle said, adding that the test now looks as if it will be conducted between September and October 2004.
"For now, all five tests are on the docket, but dates are subject to change," a U.S. defense official said.
Matt Martin, assistant director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation here concurred with Coyles assessment of the overall test schedule. "Its looking awfully tight," he said.
Congressional critics of the missile defense program are growing more uneasy about the schedule. In an Oct. 1 statement, Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) expressed doubts about the test schedule and announced an effort to declassify a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report which spells out specific problems.
"We should be alarmed at the GAOs finding that a system-level demonstration of the initial defensive capability will not be conducted prior to the September 2004 fielding,'" Tierney said.
