Rumsfeld Waits for 'Go' on Missile Defense-Final Assessment To Precede

[papau]

Rumsfeld: -... is still working out the rules dictating when and under whose authority to fire a new system to protect the United States from missile attack, and is awaiting a final assessment about the system's readiness to begin operations.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13216-2004Aug18.html

Rumsfeld Waits for 'Go' on Missile Defense
Final Assessment To Precede Alert Status

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 19, 2004; Page A07

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Aug. 18 -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday that he is still working out the rules dictating when and under whose authority to fire a new system to protect the United States from missile attack, and is awaiting a final assessment about the system's readiness to begin operations.

The remarks by Rumsfeld and other senior defense officials at a conference on missile defense indicated that the decision to put the novel and politically controversial system on alert is still weeks away.

The timing is being watched closely by proponents and critics of missile defense against the backdrop of the presidential campaign in which the speed and cost of deployment have become issues. The first interceptor missile was loaded into a silo in Alaska last month, and five more are due for installation by mid-October.

President Bush declared last week that the system will become operational later this year, reaffirming a goal he set two years ago. On Tuesday, he chided those who want to shrink and slow the program -- a thinly veiled attack on Democratic nominee John F. Kerry, who has called for reduced spending on missile defense.

But the program has been plagued by a series of testing delays -- most recently, the postponement this week of a critical flight test after the discovery of a faulty computer in the interceptor's booster. <snip>

[Ghetto_Boy]

1. Where are they on this program, protptype, pre-prototype, alpha build?

[papau]

2. Required parts are pre-alpha - may not be possible to do - others

- indeed nothing - has got past Alpha

So a beta test would be nice - on any part of it.

But this is for the election - so it goes live in October based on desk analysis of what might happen if only folks would tells when they plan to attack, and then we might stop one or two out of 5.