OTHERS SAY

Failure to intercept

After 30 years of research and an estimated $250 billion investment, the Pentagon’s defense program against intercontinental ballistic missiles from adversaries like Iran and North Korea had another failed test this month. The advanced missile interceptor launched July 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California failed to hit its target over the Pacific Ocean, the third consecutive dud.The military has tested the ground-based midcourse defense system 16 times; only eight were successful, the last in 2008.

One might expect the record to be near perfect since the tests are rigged, conducted in what the program’s director, Navy Vice Admiral James Syring, calls a “controlled, scripted environment.” The Pentagon is doing a review to determine the cause of the latest failure. But whatever the cause, it is apparent that the program’s weaknesses go beyond this case.

Two studies-one by the National Academy of Sciences released in September and another by a task force of the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board in 2011-have expressed new doubts about whether the technology to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles can ever be truly reliable and whether the program is worth the cost. Some experts describe its technical core as shattered.

Predictably, many congressional Republicans blame the problems on President Barack Obama and budget cuts backed by the Democrats. But experts say that design flaws crept into the program during the George W. Bush administration and that the problems were compounded by a rush to deploy the system before tests were run.

The North Korean and Iranian missile programs are a threat that the United States must guard against. But it doesn’t make sense to keep throwing money at a flawed system without correcting the problems first.

Editorial, Pages 10 on 07/29/2013

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