Senate Defeats Democratic Effort to Require Missile Defense Testing Before Deployment

The U.S. Senate yesterday approved a measure calling for realistic testing of the Defense Department’s planned missile defense system, but the deadline for the testing would come after the Pentagon’s scheduled deployment of the system’s first phase, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 15).

The first nine interceptors are set to be deployed to Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California this year.

The Senate voted 55-44 to approve an amendment to its version of the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill that would require the Pentagon to submit criteria for “operationally realistic” tests by Feb. 1, 2005 and to conduct such a test by Oct. 1, 2005.

The Bush administration’s missile defense plan has not been as politically divisive as former President Ronald Reagan’s more elaborate “Star Wars” program, according to the Associated Press.

However, some Democrats have objected to the deployment of what they see as an inadequately tested system.

Prior to approving the testing amendment, the Senate voted 57-42 to defeat a proposal by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to defer missile defense deployments until more extensive testing could be done.

“There is a serious problem here,” Boxer said. “We have no way of knowing if these interceptor missiles will actually be able to protect us from an incoming ballistic missile attack,” she added.

Republican senators countered that deploying rudimentary missile defenses would be preferable to having none.

Boxer’s proposal “would mean if North Korea or some other nation were to launch a missile against us, we would be forbidden by law from trying to defend ourselves,” said Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.).

The Senate also defeated an amendment by Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) to require Pentagon testing chief Thomas Christie to oversee the testing instead of the defense secretary (Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 17).

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