Re: What happened to the GBIs?
- From: "Allen Thomson" <thomsona@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 8 Jan 2006 09:47:23 -0800
A bit concerning the subject just appeared:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/07/military/15_02_331_6_06.txt
Interceptor failures sideline progress at Alaska's Fort Greely
By: RACHEL D'ORO - Associated Press
Last modified Friday, January 6, 2006 9:58 PM PST
[EXCERPTS]
FORT GREELY, Alaska -- Many of the silos are in place, obscured by snow
behind barbed wire fences, void of the ballistic missile interceptors
that are slow in coming.
As many as 10 missile interceptors were set to be installed at Fort
Greely in Alaska's interior in 2005, joining the first six interceptors
installed the previous year. But the final count was only two, raising
questions about the Bush administration's commitment to an ambitious --
and highly criticized -- missile defense program plagued by a series of
test failures.
Officials with the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, however, say MDA
director, Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, decided to temporarily step
back on the advice of two independent panels brought in to scrutinize
the test program after the latest failures in December 2004 and last
February. The program is very much alive, they said, with much of the
action in 2005 staged behind the scenes.
"The review groups recommended that more interceptors be made available
for both ground and flight testing, and this is the reason why only two
interceptors were deployed at Fort Greely," said MDA spokesman Rick
Lehner.
The 10-interceptor schedule was the maximum that could go in during
2005, not a fixed number, said Army Maj. Eric Maxon, an Alaska-based
spokesman.
"There's no rigid timeline for those remaining interceptors. There
never has been," Maxon said during a recent tour of the 800-acre
complex, built on barren terrain at the edge of an old burned spruce
forest.
Currently there are eight interceptors at Fort Greely and two at
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Officials initially said two
additional interceptors would be put in at Vandenberg, but have since
decided to keep two existing silos there available for tests expected
to begin this spring, Lehner said. At least two of those tests will
involve mock targets fired from Alaska's rocket range on Kodiak Island,
he added.
Fort Greely, about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, remains the
primary interceptor site for the national missile defense system, with
40 silos planned here. Silo construction is half-completed, and
officials are mum on when interceptors will fill them.
"More will be deployed in 2006 and 2007," Lehner said. "But for
operational security reasons the Defense Department will no longer
divulge how many interceptors are deployed, only that it is in excess
of 10."
.
- Prev by Date: Another Blackhawk Down incident
- Next by Date: Re: Future of Tanks
- Previous by thread: Another Blackhawk Down incident
- Next by thread: Webcam "Catch-a-bomber" watch?
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
|
