US shield against North Korea missiles said unproven

11.00am

WASHINGTON - US ability to shoot down a North Korean ballistic missile will be "largely unproven" when a multibillion-dollar shield becomes operational in coming months, congressional investigators said on Friday.

"As a result of testing shortfalls and the limited time available to test the (Ballistic Missile Defence System) being fielded, system effectiveness will be largely unproven when the initial capability goes on alert at the end of September 2004," the General Accounting Office said.

The Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency says the initial deployment will provide protection of all 50 US states against a limited strike from Northeast Asia.

"However, testing in 2003 did little to demonstrate the predicted effectiveness of the system's capability to defeat ballistic missiles as an integrated system," said the GAO, Congress' nonpartisan audit and investigative arm.

None of the components has been flight tested yet in the configurations in which they ultimately will be deployed, the study said. The system has "not been tested under unscripted, operationally realistic conditions," it added.

Richard Lehner, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Missile Defence Agency, noted the United States currently had no Defence at all against ballistic missiles, which could carry nuclear, chemical or biological warheads.

"We think that by the end of the year we'll have a capability against a limited threat," he said. How many incoming missiles could supposedly be shot down was classified and always will be to avoid guiding an enemy, Lehner said.

Boeing Co is the prime contractor for the ground-based system designed to intercept incoming warheads in the middle of their flight paths. Billions of dollars of contracts also have gone to the other top US military contractors, including Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co.

A capability intended to protect the United States against ballistic missile launches from the Middle East is to be added by the end of next year.

Overall, the Pentagon estimates it will need $53 billion in the next five years to develop, field and upgrade a multilayered shield involving systems based at sea, aboard modified Boeing 747 aircraft and possibly in space.

Decision-makers in the Defence Department and Congress lack "a full understanding" of the overall cost of developing and fielding the system "and what the system's true capabilities will be," GAO said.

- REUTERS