Mr. President, in December 2002 President Bush announced his decision to deploy a limited national missile defense system by 2004. Our distinguished colleague, Senator Levin, detailed the limitations of the proposed system and testing procedures in an article in the Detroit News on December 29th entitled, "Untested Missile Defense Setup Poses Risks." I ask unanimous consent that his entire article be placed in the Record following my statement. I would like to elaborate on some of the concerns raised by the distinguished Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee and discuss my concern that this system does nothing to protect my state or other parts of the United States from attack.
President Bush's limited national missile defense system, first proposed by the Administration in March 2001 and called "the Alaska Option," consists of 5 -10 silos/interceptor launchers in Fort Greely, Alaska and an upgraded Cobra Dane radar on Shemya Island, Alaska. At that time, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Missile Defense Agency director General Ronald Kadish called the Alaska site a "test bed" that could be transformed into a fully operational facility easily. During an Armed Services Committee hearing in July 2001, Mr. Wolfowitz stated, "this developmental capability could become, with very little modification, an operational capability." In a later statement, he added that "it would be essentially a software change to turn it into an operational capability."
I believe that more than modest modifications would be required. Even if the test bed was functioning and proven effective, significant changes would be needed to make it an operational system. The changes may not be technically difficult but they are very complicated when applied as a whole system. They involve many command, control, communication issues that will determine who makes the decision to fire and when and with how much information. In large and complex research and development programs, one should always be wary of anything that is described as "just a software fix."
In July 2001 Phil Coyle, former director of Operational Test and Evaluation in the Pentagon testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and defined effective deployment as the fielding of an operational system with some military utility that is effective under realistic combat conditions, against realistic threats and countermeasures, possible without adequate prior knowledge of the target cluster composition, timing, trajectory, or direction, and when operated by military personnel at all times of the day or night and in all weapons.
Mr. Coyle estimated that it would take a decade, rather than four years, to produce an effective defense system. As Senator Levin raised in his article, no part of the limited missile defense system has been tested against realistic targets, and there are no plans to test the integrated system as a whole before it is deployed. Senator Levin correctly questions whether such a system will be even marginally effective.
One also could also question whether this system should be labeled a "national" missile defense. Given the geometry of the Cobra Dane radar, the system may be better labeled a continental missile defense. The Cobra Dane Radar on Shemya Island was built to detect Soviet missile launches. It has a fixed orientation and a narrow field of view, northwest from Shemya, towards Russia. This radar cannot see missiles launched from North Korea towards Hawaii, and will have only marginal capability for southern California. The radar cannot see the current missile defense target range between California and Hawaii.
The Administration is well aware of the limitations of the radar and exclusion of Hawaii in the proposed deployed system. General Kadish referred to this as "the Hawaii problem" during a briefing for Senator Reed and members of the Armed Services Strategic Subcommittee on July 27, 2001. At that time, General Kadish said that they were considering using an Aegis cruiser to supplement the Cobra Dane radar. Such a cruiser would have to be permanently on station to provide adequate coverage.
Even with upgrades to increase the radar's field of view, the radar still will not be capable of discriminating launch characteristics or trajectory. An X band radar, such as the one now in Kwajalein, is needed. In fact, no radar in Alaska will be able to discriminate launch characteristics. The Administration has not asked for funding to upgrade the existing radar or build a new one.
The President characterized in December 2002 his initiative to field a missile defense system as "modest." The program is less than modest. It is inadequate and expensive. The path towards an effective and efficient missile defense program is the one outlined by Senator Levin.
