Ready or not, it's go for launch
DELTA JUNCTION, ALASKA--This is a town for hardy souls. Nestled between the snow-clad Alaska and Granite mountain ranges some 20 miles away, it's an area of magnificent beauty and harsh extremes--temperatures of 60 below zero in winter, swarms of mosquitoes in summer. But three years ago, when Fort Greely, the U.S. Army base 5 miles to the south, was shuttered, economics did what nature could not: It forced many residents to flee. "Those of us who stayed," jokes Viki Faber, a receptionist at Kelly's Country Inn, "were mainly sourdoughs: people who had soured on the place but didn't have the dough to leave."
Now prosperity and population have returned, on the coattails of the national missile defense system that is to be deployed by September 30, much of it at a resurrected Fort Greely. Today, military personnel, defense contractors, and construction workers fill the rejuvenated town's motel rooms and cram its restaurants. And Department of Defense community impact money-- $25 million for a town of 1,000--is paying for such goodies as a grade school, a library, three firetrucks, and an ambulance. Missile defense is mighty popular in Delta Junction.
But to a wide range of military experts, including the Pentagon's former head of weapons testing and dozens of retired generals and admirals, Delta Junction's boon is a costly and unnecessary boondoggle for the country. Defending against enemy missiles carrying nuclear or biological warheads is an admirable goal, they agree, but the government is rushing to deploy a system that hasn't been rigorously tested and is missing key components. Even the Pentagon's current head of weapons evaluation, Thomas Christie, told Congress he can't be sure the system deployed this fall will be able to shoot down an incoming missile. Critics say there's no imminent threat anyway, and what's driving the schedule is politics--President George W. Bush's desire to announce ahead of the November election that a rudimentary missile defense is in place.
Proponents admit that the system needs more testing and fine-tuning, but they say it's ready to offer a plausible initial defense against crude intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, fired from a "rogue nation," specifically North Korea. "It's a basic system to protect against a basic threat," says Col. Kevin R. Norgaard, director of site activation for ground-based missile defense. As of this fall, the shield will consist of 10 interceptor missiles--six at Fort Greely and four at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California--designed to shoot down enemy missiles at the apex of their flight over the Pacific.
Going for broke. The deployment follows an estimated $130 billion in missile defense spending since the 1980s, much of it on research and development for a ground-based system. And that's just a down payment. Missile defense planners envision a much larger network--also including sea-, air-, and space-based components--designed to create a more effective shield. It would take aim at enemy missiles right after launch and just before impact, as well as at midcourse. At Fort Greely, crews are already working on a second missile bed to house another 10 interceptors next year. There's room, ultimately, for dozens.
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