U.S. basing missile defense deadlines on N. Korea's ICBM timetable

WASHINGTON -- The United States aims to begin deployment of a national missile defense system before North Korea completes development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

U.S. officials said their deadline is 2005. At that point, they said, North Korea could have the ability to strike the United States with missiles tipped by nonconventional warheads.

"Today the 2005 date, being schedule-driven, if you will, because of the threat, produces a set of requirements and plans within the NMD program that basically are characterized as both event-driven and schedule-driven," Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, said.

Kadish told the Senate Strategic Forces subcommittee on Monday that the 2005 deadline could be missed because of technological or production difficulties. "In addition, when you set a target that's longer rather than shorter, you're going to guarantee an increase in costs of the program, just because of the length of the development cycle," he said.

Critics of the national missile defense program charge that proponents have exaggerated the North Korean missile threat to win funding for the project. The five-year program is set at $12.7 billion but the nationwide system is expected to cost much more.

The Pentagon plans is to deploy 100 missile interceptors by 2007, with the first 20 in 2005. Kadish said development of the PAC-3 is to be completed in fiscal 2001. Two years later, the Navy theater-wide lower tier systems is scheduled for completion. By 2007, the high-altitude THAAD system is slated for completion.

At the hearing, Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, warned that the United States remains unprotected from a ballistic missile attack. "I think Americans are just now beginning to understand that we are not protected against intercontinental ballistic missiles in any way," he said. "Perhaps the Desert Storm and the Scuds and the Patriot missiles made people believe that we could do that here, but we really do not have that capability against ICBMs, which is a significant threat to us."

Another subcommittee member, Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, expressed concern over the cut in funding for the airborne laser development project by the U.S. Air Force. The Pentagon requested a cut of a $92 million for fiscal 2001 and a planned reduction of nearly $800 million over the next five years.

"Does this proposed budget cut signify determination by the Pentagon or the Air Force that the laser program is unlikely to work or that it should not be deployed as possible, or is there other answers to that question?" Ms. Landrieu asked. "And finally, what would the impact on the airborne laser program's schedule of the planned nearly $800 million in cut be over the next five years?"

Kadish responded that that ABL technology is "on track" although he added that the project will encounter serious challenges "to overcome and prove its worth."

The general said the budget cut could delay ABL development by two years, originally set for 2006. "It's two years that we lose in a very important boost-phase intercept capability of a revolutionary technology," Kadish said. "So, although I'm very disappointed that we're slowing it down, it's still a very important part of our architecture."