The recent missile launches by North Korea and Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on Israel underline the extreme difficulty in defending against missiles of all ranges and the fact that despite more than 50 years of research, the United States has yet to deploy an effective and reliable missile defense system.
The Pentagon’s ground-based, mid-course missile defense system (GMD), formerly called by the more descriptive name National Missile Defense, is being developed and deployed to intercept one or a very few warheads launched by inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM) against the United States. The administration is requesting $10.4 billion for missile defense, the largest single program in the fiscal year 2007 Pentagon budget. These annual costs could rise to $19 billion in a few years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. A large proportion of the missile defense budget is allocated to the GMD system.
The Bush Administration planned to deploy a National Missile Defense in 2004 which, it argued, could protect the United States from a small attack from North Korean nuclear-tipped missiles. It failed, and it failed miserably.
May 2004 Current national missile defense deployment plans The initial deployment of land-based interceptors designed to smash into enemy warheads headed toward the U.S. is scheduled for calendar 2004. The Pentagon originally announced plans to deploy 10 interceptors in Alaska...
The complete briefing book is available as an Adobe PDF file TABLE OF CONTENTS Chap. 1: Current status of missile defense program Chap. 2: Talking points against deploying in 2004 Chap. 3: Chart: What will be ready for September 2004...
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - by Project Director Joseph Cirincione April 06, 2004 In the two months before September 11, five cabinet members, including National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, traveled to Moscow. They were not there to coordinate...
Global Security Newswire - April 9, 2004 - By David Ruppe, Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON - In a major address four months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush declared the potential threat of ballistic...
Special Report March 25, 2004 Initial Deployment The Administration intends to deploy an initial operating capability of a ground-based strategic ballistic missile defense system (GMD), designed to attack incoming missiles in their mid-course phase of flight, beginning in the...
Washington, D.C. -- March 26, 2004: The Bush Administration will soon deploy the first stages of a Missile Defense system designed to protect the United States from a ballistic missile attack. But today, during a press conference unveiling “An Open...
Washington Post - March 11, 2004 - By Bradley Graham, Washington Post Staff Writer [For highlights of the report, see http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04254high.pdf] [For full text of the report, see http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-254] The Pentagon has taken some steps toward more realistic testing of...
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