Multi-layered missile defense could be operational by 2015.

• Author: Fein, Geoff S.
• Position: Missile Defense

Missile defense program officials estimate that a system of land, sea and space based radar and interceptors, covering all 50 states, could be up and running by 2015.

But there are challenges. President Bush has directed the Missile Defense Agency to field an initial capability by September 2004. Testing will be ongoing even after initial deployment. It is yet unclear how much this multi-layered defense will cost.

Army Maj. Gen. John Holly who heads the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program office in Huntsville, Ala., said the country initially would have a system that is only 70 percent complete.

"We won't field a perfect system, but [it] will grow incrementally," he said at the sixth annual Space and Missile Defense Conference. "[There] will be technological breakthroughs and setbacks."

Over the next three months, the Army will finish installation of interceptor silos at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Orbital Science Corp. and Lockheed Martin will conduct flight tests with their missiles, said Holly.

This is the system that the president ordered to be in place by the end of next summer.

"At the end of '04, [we'll have a] limited but credible capability," Holly said. By the end of 2005, Fort Greely will have 10 additional interceptors.

The forested area around the 62-year-old Fort Greely, located near Kodiak, Alaska, has been converted into a 500-acre missile field. The Missile Defense Agency began construction of its Ground-based Missile Defense (GMD) system there in June 2002. The site will eventually have 16 silos, two power plants and two GFC/C (GMD Fire Control and Communications) nodes.

While eyes focus on the implementation of ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California, testing will continue on a number of other platforms, including the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the Airborne Laser (ABL), Aegis, the Mobile High Energy Laser (MTHEL), the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) and the X-band sea-based radar.

The ABL, a high energy laser on a modified 747 cargo plane designed to track and destroy ballistic missiles during boost phase, will make its first attempt at shooting down a missile in 2005, said Lt. Col. Rodney Covick, deputy system program manager.

In December, the Navy will conduct flight mission six (FM-6) of its Aegis missile defense system. The ballistic missile defense system currently is being tested on the USS Lake Erie (CG 70). Its objective is to defend against short to intermediate range ballistic...