Disarmament Diplomacy

News Review

US Missile Defence Planning Proceeds

The US programme to develop and deploy defences designed primarily to protect its national territory from limited ballistic missile attack has been proceeding in the background of a high-profile, global diplomatic offensive on the issue by the Bush administration (see Documents and Sources for extensive coverage).

On April 21, the Los Angeles Times reported that the administration had received a new report on missile defence options from an advisory committee established by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and headed by retired Air Force General James McCarthy. The committee's study - characterised by Pentagon spokesperson Rear Admiral Craig Quigley in the Times article as "the interim report of one group of individuals" - calls for a maximalist approach, advocating widespread deployment of interceptor and associated systems on land, at sea and in space, with the aim of providing options for destroying missiles immediately after launch, in mid-flight, and during descent. The committee further advises deployment as early as possible, even prior to full testing and performance-verification - the President is urged to "accept program risk to facilitate early deployment."

On May 7, Defense Week reported that the missile defence contract between the Department of Defense and the Boeing Corporation was, according to a Pentagon review, expected to suffer a cost overrun of $381 million (17%). The contract - signed in April 1998, revised in January 2001, and scheduled to run until 2007 - designates Boeing as the 'Lead Systems Integrator' for the project. Elaborating on the Pentagon review, Air Force Lt. Colonel Richard Lehner told Defense Week:

"We had asked Boeing to accomplish a number of tasks that were outside the scope of the original contract... Some of the things that were done as a result of the flight test failures, for example, required a lot of additional work that was not covered in that first contract, because we had not anticipated that kind of flight test failure. So that required a lot of work on Boeing's part to give us the answers... And you had a lot of labour costs associated with that, which were not planned for."

Reports: Ambitious plan urged for US missile defense, Los Angeles Times, April 21; Pentagon panel urging expanded missile defense program, Reuters, April 21; National missile defense costs balloon, Defense Week, May 7.

© 2001 The Acronym Institute.