Limp Missile

As the last two Star Wars "prequels" have been utter flops, so has the real world version, renamed Missile Defense by it's proponents and government financial backers, proved an utter failure of concept and execution. somewhere in the neighborhood of $130 billion have already been blown on this dead-in-the-water Cold War boondoggle, with at least $50 billion over the next five years to follow down the sinkhole.

Test Failure Sets Back U.S. Missile Defense Plan
Wed Dec 15, 2004 05:44 PM ET

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush's drive to deploy a multibillion-dollar shield against ballistic missiles was set back on Wednesday by what critics called a stunning failure of its first full flight test in two years.

The abortive $85 million exercise raised fresh questions about the reliability of the first elements of the plan, an heir to former president Ronald Reagan's vision of an space-based missile defense that critics dubbed "Star Wars."

The interceptor missile never left its silo at Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, shutting itself down automatically because of an "anomaly" of unknown origin, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said.

About 16 minutes earlier, a target missile had been fired from Kodiak, Alaska, in what was to have been a fly-by test chiefly designed to gather data on new hardware, software and engagement angles, said Richard Lehner, a spokesman.

For instance, a booster built by Orbital Sciences Corp. was to have been exercised for the first time in the way it would actually be fielded. One of the test's goals was to show it was ready for production.

"Obviously it isn't," said Philip Coyle, who was the Pentagon's chief weapons tester under President Bill Clinton, "and now they also will have to fix the boosters that have been installed in silos in Alaska and Vandenberg" Air Force Base, California.

None of the tests have come off as planned. Even with the target vehicle broadcasting a GPS location signal to the missile, the latter still cannot find the former. It is unlikely that an incoming ICBM will be phoning ahead to tell Missile Defense where to locate it. It is also unlikely the system will ever work, based not only upon today's ready technology, but that of the near term future.

Consider the funds still budgeted for this defense industry giveaway - $50 billion for the coming five years. That kind of cash would buy a lot of body and vehicle armor for those embroiled, at this very instant, in a war that involves more common types of missiles - bullets, rocket propelled grenades, and shoulder fired explosive projectiles. Missile Defense ought to be killed quietly in its sleep and a portion of the proposed funding redirected so the families of soldiers in the field don't have to purchase their own body armor.

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