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2000 WMD Response Program News

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December

High Energy Laser Research Awards Announced , DOD News Release, 27 December 2000 -- The Department of Defense announced today that it would award $8.6 million in fiscal 2001 funds to support research into technologies that will advance the development of high-energy-laser weapons.
Pentagon Agency Announces Large Missile Defense Award, U.S. Department of Defense, 22 December 2000 -- The Defense Department's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Issued a large contract to Boeing December 22 to continue development of the National Missile Defense (NMD) system for work beginning in January and running for seven more years.
Warfighters gather for missile attack training, by Tom Mahr, Air Force Print News, 20 December 2000 -- More than 350 players, analysts and observers converged on the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Joint National Test Facility here Dec. 11-14 to think about and practice responding to a limited missile attack on the United States.
Pentagon Spokesman's Regular Briefing - Missile Defense Tests, U.S. Department of Defense, 19 December 2000 -- Q: Ken, have any decisions been made for further tests in the new year of the ballistic missile defense system?
Navy Demonstrates Cooperative Engagement at Sea , DOD News Release, 15 December 2000 -- The Navy announced today that results of testing concluded Dec. 15 indicate the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) and the combat systems with which it is integrated are on track to a successful Operational Evaluation (OPEVAL) in April and May of 2001.
November

October
Raytheon's National Missile Defense Prototype Radar Successful In Two Significant Tests, Raytheon PRNewswire, 12 October 2000 -- The National Missile Defense (NMD) Ground Based Radar-Prototype (GBR-P) developed by Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTNA; RTNB) successfully completed two significant, stressing exercises Sept. 28 against incoming ICBM targets at the South Pacific Kwajalein Missile Range.
Preserving 1972 Abm Treaty, Small Arms Scourge, National Missile Defence Among Issues Discussed, As First Committeee Continues Debate, UN Press Release, 04 October 2000 -- A certain contradiction -- defined by two opposing trends -- was emerging in the present stage of disarmament, the representative of the Russian Federation told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today, as it continued its general debate.
Missile Defence Systems, Nuclear Weapon 'Comeback', Arms Expenditures Among Issues Raised In First Committee, As General Debate Continues, UN Press Release, 03 October 2000 -- Given the unprecedented interdependence among countries, attempts to seek "absolute security" at the expense of the security of others would go nowhere and benefit nobody, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) was told today, as it continued its general debate.

September

DoD News Briefing - BMD, U.S. Department of Defense, 28 September 2000 -- The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization will announce later today, if they haven't already, that they have completed two risk reduction flights, which are not intercept flights, but are designed to test various components of the national missile defense system that's currently under development.
Army accused of diverting system's money, Huntsville Times, 22 September 2000 -- Army officials are diverting money meant for an anti-satellite weapons system to other uses and are intimidating employees who blow the whistle on them, according to a New Hampshire senator.
Deadlocked, Conference on Disarmament ends 2000 session with no work plan, UN News, 21 September 2000 -- Disagreements over nuclear disarmament and the prevention of an arms race in outer space blocked the Conference on Disarmament from adopting a work programme during its entire 2000 session, which ended today.
Conference On Disarmament Concludes 2000 Session, UN Press Release, 21 September 2000 -- The Conference on Disarmament, the world's sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, today concluded its 2000 session by adopting its annual report to the General Assembly.
Defense Department Regular Briefing, U.S. Department of Defense, 14 September 2000 -- Q: What are the reasons for the postponement of the THEL test in New Mexico?
Clinton's No- Go Decision On NMD Hailed By Overseas Media As 'Wise Move', Foreign Media Reaction Reports, 07 September 2000 -- Commentary from around the world on Clinton's decision to delay deployment of NMD.
DoD News Briefing, U.S. Department of Defense, 07 September 2000 -- Questions on costs and testing of a missile defense system.
Defense Department Report, Thursday, September 7, USIS Washington File, 07 September 2000 -- The next test of the National Missile Defense (NMD) system, initially scheduled for December, now will probably take place "sometime early next year," Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters at the Defense Department September 7, after the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) has completed its analysis of the failure of Integrated-Test number five last July.
U-S OPINION ROUNDUP: PRESIDENT CLINTON DEFERS MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM, Voice of America, 06 September 2000 -- A sampling of U.S. editorial opinion on Clinton's decision to delay deployment of a national missile defense system.
PENTAGON/MISSILE DEFENSE, Voice of America, 05 September 2000 -- U-S Defense Department officials seem undisturbed by President Bill Clinton's announcement last Friday that he is leaving to his successor a decision on whether to deploy a controversial national missile defense system.
ABOLISHING NUCLEAR WEAPONS, source, 05 September 2000 -- An article in a major American journal proposes the United States take the lead in bringing about the complete elimination of nuclear weapons before they spread beyond control.
President Defers Missile Defense System Decision, American Forces Press Service, 01 September 2000 -- President Bill Clinton said that while the United States may eventually need a national missile defense system, he will leave it up to his successor to decide whether or not to proceed with plans to develop that system.
STATEMENT OF SECRETARY OF DEFENSE WILLIAM S. COHEN, Department of Defense, 01 September 2000 -- The President's choice to defer a deployment decision on a National Missile Defense system to his successor involved many factors. Central for me, as I have stated publicly, is the importance of sustaining a solid national consensus not only on the need for an NMD system but on the scope and structure of such a system...
GORE-BUSH MISSILE DEFENSE, Voice of America, 01 September 2000 -- Both candidates for president of the United States are responding to President Clinton's announcement that he will leave a final decision on deployment of a missile defense system to his successor.
CLINTON-MISSILE DEFENSE, Voice of America, 01 September 2000 -- President Clinton has announced he is leaving a decision on whether the United States will deploy a missile defense system to his successor.
Berger Briefing on Clinton's NMD Decision, THE WHITE HOUSE, Office of the Press Secretary, 01 September 2000 -- U.S. National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger told reporters at the White House September 1 that the technology for a National Missile Defense "is promising but unproven" and "we have to be cleared-eyed about this."
Albright Statement on Presidential Decision on NMD, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Office of the Spokesman, 01 September 2000 -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says President Clinton's decision not to commit now to deployment of a national missile defense "will give us more time to press ahead on several diplomatic fronts."
Clinton Defers Missile Defense Decision to Next President, THE WHITE HOUSE, Office of the Press Secretary, 01 September 2000 -- President Clinton announced September 1 his decision to leave to his successor the critical decision on whether to deploy a National Missile Defense (NMD) system to defend all 50 American states against a limited ballistic missile attack.
NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE, PRESS BRIEFING BY JOE LOCKHART, 01 September 2000 -- Any reaction to Bush's comment on NMD announcement?
FACT SHEET: National Missile Defense Decision, THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary, 01 September 2000
NAVSEA's Theater Ballistic Missile Defense Program Complete Successful Test Flights, NAVSEA Public Affairs, 01 September 2000

August

NPT goals key topic of UN disarmament meeting in Akita, Japan, UN News, 25 August 2000 -- The importance of reaching the goals of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and their potential effect on the Asia and Pacific region were key topics of discussion at a United Nations-sponsored disarmament meeting held in Akita, Japan this week.
Navy Area Theater Ballistic Missile Defense program completes second flight test of the SM-2 Block IVA Missile, U.S. Navy Office of Information, 25 August 2000 -- The U.S. Navy moved another step closer to Navy AREA Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (TBMD) capability with the second successful test flight of the Standard Missile 2 (SM-2), Block IVA in two months.
Army Space Command runs missile defense exercise, Army News Service, 24 August 2000 -- U.S. Army Space Command organized a joint Battle Planning Exercise Aug. 16 for the nation's missile defense system.
Army Space Command runs missile defense exercise, Army News Service, 24 August 2000 -- U.S. Army Space Command organized a joint Battle Planning Exercise Aug. 16 for the nation's missile defense system, the eighth in a series of exercises sponsored by the U.S. Space Command to fine-tune its battle management command, control and communications system.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE DAILY PRESS BRIEFING, 22 August 2000 -- The President has said he expects to make the decision [on NMD deployment] in the next few weeks.
CHINA/ US DEFENSE, Voice of America, 16 August 2000 -- Chinese military experts have warned that US missile defense plans could spark a new global arms race and sour Sino US relations.
DoD News Briefing, 15 August 2000 -- Q: Anything new on NMD?
BUILDING A DEFENSE PBS Newshour August 9, 2000 - JOHN PIKE: "The reality is that the Iranian leadership has demonstrated profound rationality in looking at the suffering of their own people. The casualties that they were prepared to suffer during the war with Iraq back in the 1980s, only a very small percentage as a percentage of population of those that supposedly rational countries like France, or Britain, or Germany suffered during the First World War."
Team Airborne Laser Continues Modification Work With Delivery Of New Titanium Belly Skins For 747-400 Freighter Flying Platform, U.S. Department of Defense, 07 August 2000 -- Two 25-foot-long-by-5.5-foot-wide titanium "belly skins" for the first flying platform of the Airborne Laser (ABL) -- a 747-400 Freighter -- have been delivered to the Boeing modification center in Wichita, Kan.
CEC/Patriot Interoperability Test - Environmental Assessment, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, 03 August 2000
DoD News Briefing - NMD, U.S. Department of Defense, 03 August 2000 -- Q: During Secretary Cohen's briefing to the Senate Armed Service Committee, the hearing, he said that there was a necessity to have allied support. And recently the British have hinted a little opposition to that. Does that have any effect on his recommendation at all? Has he said anything about that?
Radar Test Planned for Ocean City Airport, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, 03 August 2000 -- From August 4 to August 19, 2000, the Department of Defense's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) plans to conduct a test of radar capabilities using radars at Wallops Island, VA, the Ocean City, MD airport, and aboard a Navy cruiser at sea.
Environmental Assessment - CEC/PATRIOT Interoprtability Test, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, 03 August 2000 - Overview of the test
DoD News Briefing - NMD Test Failure, U.S. Department of Defense, 01 August 2000 -- Q: Has the SecDef received the report on NMD yet? And when does he plan to report to the president? And when are we going to get a briefing on what happened and why the kill vehicle couldn't separate?

July

DoD News Briefing - NMD Test Failure, U.S. Department of Defense, 27 July 2000 -- Q: Ken, it's been three weeks since the NMD failure. Have there any preliminary decisions -- been any preliminary decisions? And are we going to get a briefing anytime soon on why it didn't separate from the booster?
DoD News Briefing - NMD, U.S. Department of Defense, 27 July 2000 -- Q: The obvious topic we wanted to start out with was missile defense, where we stand, where you stand now in your process in deciding whether you recommend to proceed with the project.
Cohen on Mational Missile Defense, U.S. Department of Defense, 25 July 2000 -- Statement of Secretary of Defense William Cohen before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on National Missile Defense.
Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile scores third intercept, U.S. Department of Defense, 24 July 2000 -- The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Army conducted a test of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Saturday 22, at 8:15 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Preliminary test data indicate the test was successful.
PAC-3 INTERCEPT TEST TO BE CONDUCTED AT WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, U.S. Department of Defense, 21 July 2000 -- The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Army plan to conduct an intercept test flight of a Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) Missile at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Saturday, July 22, at approximately 7:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time.
DoD News Briefing - Theater Missile Defense, U.S. Department of Defense, 18 July 2000 -- Q: Has the recent test of the Iranian missile reinforced DoD's commitment to fast, deployable theater missile defenses, such as the Patriot, PAC-3 or the THAAD, to getting those things out there as soon as possible?
Joint Statement by the Presidents of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation on Anti-Missile Defense, 18 July 2000 - [The US NMD program], if implemented, will give rise to most serious negative consequences on the security of not only Russia, China and other countries, but the United States itself and global strategic stability as well. In this context, China and Russia have registered their unequivocal opposition to the above programme.
Press Briefing, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesman, 18 July 2000 -- QUESTION: Do you have anything more than Joe said about the Chinese-Russian statement on NMD?
Joint Press Conference with Australian Minister of Defense John C. Moore - Australia and NMD, U.S. Department of Defense, 17 July 2000 -- Q: Sir, Bernard Lagan, Sydney Morning Herald. What role could Australia play in your national missile defense system?
PRESS BRIEFING BY LAEL BRAINARD, DEPUTY NATIONAL ECONOMIC ADVISOR AND JIM STEINBERG, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, source, 17 July 2000 - Q: Jim, how significant do you expect national missile defense to be an issue with [Prime Minister Blair] in view of the failure of the test? And the foreign ministers last week said that they stress the importance of maintaining the ABM treaty. Do you read that as a criticism of NMD?
NMD: Failed Test Prompts New Criticism; Speculation About Clinton Decision, Foreign Media Reaction Reports, 14 July 2000 - Foreign media commentary on the failure of the US NMD test.
DoD News Briefing - NMD, U.S. Department of Defense, 13 July 2000 -- Q: Admiral, three prominent Democratic senators today asked President Clinton to delay a decision on the national missile defense. I just wondered, how committed is the Pentagon to a 2005 deployment and what difference would it make if President Clinton leaves the decision to the next administration?
ANOTHER ANTI-MISSILE TEST FAILS, Voice of America, 12 July 2000 -- The United States continues to debate building a National Missile Defense System, but the latest test firing of a missile designed to knock down an aggressor missile failed.
DoD News Briefing - NMD Test Failure, U.S. Department of Defense, 27 July 2000 -- Q: Ken, it's been three weeks since the NMD failure. Have there any preliminary decisions -- been any preliminary decisions? And are we going to get a briefing anytime soon on why it didn't separate from the booster?
DoD News Briefing - NMD, U.S. Department of Defense, 27 July 2000 -- Q: The obvious topic we wanted to start out with was missile defense, where we stand, where you stand now in your process in deciding whether you recommend to proceed with the project.
PAC-3 INTERCEPT TEST TO BE CONDUCTED AT WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, U.S. Department of Defense, 21 July 2000 -- The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Army plan to conduct an intercept test flight of a Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) Missile at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Saturday, July 22, at approximately 7:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time.
DoD News Briefing - Theater Missile Defense, U.S. Department of Defense, 18 July 2000 -- Q: Has the recent test of the Iranian missile reinforced DoD's commitment to fast, deployable theater missile defenses, such as the Patriot, PAC-3 or the THAAD, to getting those things out there as soon as possible?
Joint Statement by the Presidents of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation on Anti-Missile Defense, 18 July 2000 - [The US NMD program], if implemented, will give rise to most serious negative consequences on the security of not only Russia, China and other countries, but the United States itself and global strategic stability as well. In this context, China and Russia have registered their unequivocal opposition to the above programme.
Press Briefing, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesman, 18 July 2000 -- QUESTION: Do you have anything more than Joe said about the Chinese-Russian statement on NMD?
Joint Press Conference with Australian Minister of Defense John C. Moore - Australia and NMD, U.S. Department of Defense, 17 July 2000 -- Q: Sir, Bernard Lagan, Sydney Morning Herald. What role could Australia play in your national missile defense system?
PRESS BRIEFING BY LAEL BRAINARD, DEPUTY NATIONAL ECONOMIC ADVISOR AND JIM STEINBERG, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, source, 17 July 2000 - Q: Jim, how significant do you expect national missile defense to be an issue with [Prime Minister Blair] in view of the failure of the test? And the foreign ministers last week said that they stress the importance of maintaining the ABM treaty. Do you read that as a criticism of NMD?
NMD: Failed Test Prompts New Criticism; Speculation About Clinton Decision, Foreign Media Reaction Reports, 14 July 2000 - Foreign media commentary on the failure of the US NMD test.
DoD News Briefing - NMD, U.S. Department of Defense, 13 July 2000 -- Q: Admiral, three prominent Democratic senators today asked President Clinton to delay a decision on the national missile defense. I just wondered, how committed is the Pentagon to a 2005 deployment and what difference would it make if President Clinton leaves the decision to the next administration?
U-S/MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 09 July 2000 -- Key U-S senators are urging President Clinton to let his successor decide whether to build a proposed U-S anti-ballistic missile system.
Pentagon Missile Defense Test Fails By Jim Banke SPACE.com 08 July 2000 - "If this was a real war we would have just lost Chicago," John Pike, director of space policy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington D.C., said after the test. "Aunt Minnie and the rest of the city would be ashes in the stratosphere right now."
Statement By Governor George W. Bush Regarding Missile Defense Saturday, July 08, 2000 - While last night's test is a disappointment, I remain confident that, given the right leadership, America can develop an effective missile defense system.
ANTI-MISSILE TEST UPDATE Voice of America 08 July 2000 -- Pentagon Officials say the U-S National Missile Defense system missed its target in a critical test Saturday Morning. The failure may give new ammunition to critics who say the 60-billion dollar system won't work.
UPDATE ON NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE INTERCEPT TEST Saturday, July 08, 2000 - The PLV started to tumble slowly after it made an energy management maneuver designed to keep it safely within the confines of the missile test range. The second anomaly was that the EKV never received a message from the PLV indicating that the second stage rocket motor had completed its propellant burn.
DoD News Briefing - Presenter: Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, Director, BMDO Saturday, July 8, 2000 - 1:37 a.m. EDT -- We did not intercept the warhead that we expected to have tonight. We had only one anomaly with the target launch in that we did not get the decoy balloon to inflate, so it was an uninflated decoy. We were able to determine from the X-band radar that the balloon didn't inflate. We launched the interceptor. But we failed to have the kill vehicle separate from the booster second stage. The next test that's scheduled right now is in the October/November time period. The Secretary and President will be deciding not just on technical feasibility, but on other considerations as well. The booster is going to be the gating item for the second decision which is the one in '01, and that's the decision whether you're going to actually deploy and make a commitment to the radars.
NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE CONDUCTS INTERCEPT TEST July 8, 2000 - An intercept was not achieved due to an apparent failure of the interceptor's kill vehicle to separate from the interceptor's second stage rocket motor.
JOHN PIKE DISCUSSES FAILURE OF MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM, SATURDAY TODAY - NBC, 08 July 2000 -- ...overall it doesn't look like this system is going to solve any problems. It clearly looks like it's going to create them...
Global security, politics collide in big defense test, Denver Post, 07 July 2000 -- The [NMD] system would be run from a "battle management center" here, a mile inside Cheyenne Mountain west of Colorado Springs where early warning operations were set up during the Cold War. The proposed defense system is designed to protect Americans from what U.S. officials describe as serious potential threats from North Korea, Iran, Iraq and other nations.
Navy adding office for missile defense, Stars and Stripes, 07 July 2000 -- In a sign of the growing importance of missile defense among Pentagon planners, the Navy has reorganized its top-level staff to make room for a new a new office - the assistant chief of naval operations for missile defense.
Fifth National Missile Defense test flight slated, American Forces Press Service, 07 July 2000 -- Pentagon-based reporters will be pulling a late shift here July 7, standing by for the results of the fifth test flight of a prototype National Missile Defense system.
JOHN PIKE, DEFENSE ANALYST, FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT - NPR, 07 July 2000 -- Evidently, they are clearly working on a very difficult problem if they have managed to spend this much money and this much time and still not have anything to show for it.
Watershed For Missile Defense By Roberto Suro Washington Post July 7, 2000 - "There's not yet enough evidence to show that the system will work, and Friday's test won't change that," said Robert Park of the American Physical Society, who joined representatives of the Federation of American Scientists and the Union of Concerned Scientists in releasing statements yesterday urging Clinton not to make a deployment decision because the system has not proved its feasibility.
VANDENBERG MISSILE PROTEST Voice of America 07 July 2000 -- The environmental group Greenpeace has stationed a ship offshore, where part of the test missile is expected to splash down.
CLINTON - ANTI-MISSILE Voice of America 07 July 2000 -- With America's European allies, Russia and China vehemently opposed to the proposed U-S national missile defense system, administration officials are playing down expectations for the upcoming anti-missile test.
ANTI-MISSILE PROTEST Voice of America 07 July 2000 -- Pentagon plans to test the U-S National Missile Defense, or anti-ballistic missile system, Friday night are sparking protests from peace groups, Nobel prize winning scientists and Russia's government.
Critics Asking Clinton To Stop Advancing Missile Plan By Elaine Sciolino New York Times July 7, 2000 -- The American Physical Society, with 42,000 physicists; the Federation of American Scientists; and the Union of Concerned Scientists jointly announced that they urged Mr. Clinton not to deploy a missile defense system.
Missile defense test set BY JONATHAN S. LANDAY San Jose Mercury News Friday, July 7, 2000, -- ``Even if the next planned test of the proposed anti-ballistic missile system works as planned, any movement toward deployment would be premature, wasteful and dangerous,'' said the letter. It was sponsored by the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington, D.C.-based arms control organization,
NAVY SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTS FIRST FLIGHT OF AREA TBMD MISSILE 6 July 2000 - Navy Area Theater Ballistic Missile Defense launch first of eight engineering and manufacturing development flight tests
Navy Establishes Missile Defense Office 6 July 2000 - Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jay Johnson announced today the formation of a new office on his immediate staff, the assistant chief of Naval Operations (ACNO) for Missile Defense, responsible for naval missile defense, include theater ballistic missile defense.
MISSILE PREVIEW Voice of America 06 July 2000 -- Tom Collina of the Union of Concerned Scientists says even if the interceptor hits the target in Friday's test, officials will not know enough to make a sensible decision on the fate of the system.
TEST NUMBER THREE OF NINETEEN TESTS TO TEST TECHNOLOGY FOR POSSIBLE DEPLOYMENT OF A NATIONAL THEATER MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM NEWS BRIEFING HELD BY THE COALITION TO REDUCE NUCLEAR DANGERS, THE FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS, THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS AND THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY WASHINGTON OFFICE - THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2000
Nobel Winners Urge Halt To Missile Plan By William J. Broad New York Times July 6, 2000 -- A group of 50 Nobel laureates has signed an open letter to President Clinton urging him to reject a proposed $60 billion missile defense system. The group said the plan would be wasteful and dangerous.
Science Just First Challenge For Missile Shield By Andrea Stone USA Today July 5, 2000 -- Think about hitting a bullet with a bullet. Now think about missing. ''If one warhead gets through, you've got more dead Americans than every war put together,'' said John Pike, a weapons analyst at the Federation of American Scientists.
Missile Impossible? By Mark Thompson Time July 10, 2000 Pg. 30 -- This week's $100 million test of the space shield is all but fixed. Does the outcome matter? The Federation of American Scientists posits that placing the in-flight interceptor communications system stations in pairs, fairly far apart, reduces the chances that in-flight communications will be lost because of storms that may develop over a single IFICS site.
Countdown to national missile defense BY George I. Seffers AND Dan Verton [Federal Computer Week, July 3, 2000 -- The Federation of American Scientists’ Pike, a longtime NMD watcher, said tests like the one scheduled for July 7 add a little more fidelity to the system architecture concept each time they are conducted. However, many questions remain unanswered, he said. "I remain unconvinced that really high-fidelity simulation is in the cards, and totally unconvinced that anyone would ever bet the country on this contraption," Pike said.
Testing Missile Defense: Scientific Experts Address the 3rd Test and Effectiveness of the System, U.S. Newswire, 03 July 2000 -- As the President prepares to announce his decision on whether to deploy the system, he is under increasing pressure from independent scientists, military and diplomatic experts, Republicans and Democrats, as well as U.S. allies, Russia and China not to make a precipitous decision on NMD deployment.
June
The Russians Are Coming 30 June 2000 - Fort Bliss to host Russian-U.S. Theater Missile Defense command post exercise in November or December
THE CASE FOR MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 30 June 2000 -- On July 7th, the United States will conduct its next test of a national missile defense system. Previous tests have produced mixed results. The information provided by the new test will help President Bill Clinton decide whether to proceed with the preliminary stages of deployment.
SENATE-MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 29 June 2000 -- The head of the American missile defense program is denying allegations of fraud and rigged test results, in advance of a crucial test next week.
NAVY SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTS FIRST FLIGHT OF AREA TBMD MISSILE June 29, 2000 -- The Navy Area Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (TBMD) Program conducted a successful controlled test flight of the Standard Missile 2 (SM-2), Block IVA TBMD and Anti-Air Warfare multi-role missile. The flight, designated "Control Test Vehicle One" (CTV-1), took place at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
Army Awards Lockheed Martin $4-Billion THAAD EMD Development Contract June 28, 2000 -- The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Huntsville, AL, today awarded Lockheed Martin an approximate $4 billion contract to begin the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program.
PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT June 28, 2000 -- It's quite possible that in the next few years, countries not part of the arms control regimes of the last three decades could develop both long-range missile delivery capability and weapons of mass destruction which they could put on warheads, and that none of this would be covered by, essentially, the mutual deterrence structure of the ABM Treaty and all the things we've done since then. I'm also encouraged by the moratorium that the North Koreans have on testing. But they still have a missile program, and so it's still something that the United States has to be mindful of and to prepare to deal with and to keep up with.
President May Lose Nuclear Decision By David Wood, Newhouse News Service June 28, 2000 - "In the real world, the human in the loop basically serves as little more than a circuit breaker to prevent the system from going off half- cocked," said John Pike, a space and military policy analyst for the Federation of American Scientists in Washington.
National Missile Defense and Strategic Security in the Post-Cold War World By Senator Joseph Biden (Speech to the Cato Institute on June 27) I fear that acting upon our worst fears will only make those fears come true. If we were to deploy the national missile defense proposed by the Pentagon, China would surely increase its nuclear forces.
Letter from ASD(C3I) Arthur Money to Ted Postol - June 23, 2000 -- "I regret any confusion surrounding the recent visit of representatives of the Defense Security Service (DSS) to you at your office.... I want to assure you that you are not under investigation..."
Letter from Ted Postol to John Podesta - June 21, 2000 -- "I am writing to ask you to explain why three Defense Security Service investigators would arrive unannounced at my M.I.T. office carrying a letter for me to read that was classified SECRET."
Special Briefing Regarding the National Missile Defense Program Dr. Jacques Gansler, Undersecretary for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics and Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, Director, BMDO Tuesday, June 20, 2000 - Mr. Gansler: We would anticipate seeing ICBM-type ranges from North Korea, possibly even Iran, in the 2005 time period. We will have 20 interceptors in the initial deployment. We would assume like five possible launches against it so that we could have four shots at each of those five. The dilemma here is meeting the 2005 date versus if the flight were not totally successful, and then you have to ask yourself the trade, and that's the decision that the president would have to make. It depends, of course, on what caused the failure. But it is very clear that if you don't make a decision now to start to build that radar on Shemya, then you are sacrificing the 2005 date. There is also a law, which the Congress has passed, which says we "shall deploy" the system "as soon as it is technically feasible." And so naturally that's not something we can just ignore, but it's part of the reason for the time-dependence of this program.
Briefing Slides - Special Briefing Regarding the National Missile Defense Program Tuesday, June 20, 2000 -
DEBATE ESCALATES OVER U-S MISSILE DEFENSEVoice of America 19 June 2000 -- As the date nears for President Clinton to decide whether to begin building a limited nuclear missile defense system for this country, the editorial debate intensifies.
STAR WARS II by WILLIAM D. HARTUNG and MICHELLE CIARROCCA The Nation - June 19, 2000 -- As John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists put it, "This is a political decision driven by the need to defend Al Gore from Republicans rather than defend America against missiles."
DoD News Briefing Thursday, June 15, 2000 -- North Korea is not the only country we worry about. We worry about Iraq, we worry about Iran, and we worry about other countries that are working on long-range missiles or that already have chemical and biological weapons and would like to have ways to deliver them with long-range missiles. We think a boost-phase defense system offers some fairly daunting technological problems. And you may have seen a briefing that Under Secretary Walter Slocombe gave at NATO, last week, on Thursday, that ran through in considerable detail what some of the technical difficulties are for a boost-phase intercept system.
DoD News Briefing Tuesday, June 13, 2000 -- General Welch heads the independent review team, which has so far issued two reports on our national missile defense program. The third has recently been published -- and it's classified, of course. He is trying very hard to complete an unclass version and will be -- hopefully have that done, so that we can sit down and discus that with you tomorrow.
National Missile Defense Independent Review Team Executive Summary Tuesday, June 13, 2000 - The IRT concluded that the technical capability to develop and field the limited system to meet the defined C1 threat & available. Meeting the 200S I0C schedule goal with required performance remains high risk.
The Missile Plan Skeptic By David Abel Boston Globe June 12, 2000 -- ''Ted is evidently in the business of telling the emperor he has no clothes; unfortunately, the facts haven't penetrated Washington circles,'' said John Pike, director of space policy and military analysis at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington. ''It's kind of dreadful to contemplate what's technically possible and politically acceptable.''
Laser Air Defense System Still Decade Away for U.S. Air Defense Artillery ADA Magazine 9 June 2000 -- Why is Israeli, already the first nation with a domestic defense--Arrow 2--against ballistic missiles, rather than the United States destined to become the first nation to deploy a laser missile defense system?
PRESS BRIEFING BY JOE LOCKHART June 9, 2000 -- The Pentagon was looking at this and would be providing some analysis, and when that's done, I'll be glad to talk about it.
Tactical laser destroys rocket in shootdown test (Army News Service, June 9, 2000 -- The Tactical High Energy Laser, known as the THEL demonstrator, successfully tracked and destroyed a single rocket for the first time and during the first attempt June 6 at about 3:45 p.m. EDT.
DoD News Briefing June 8, 2000 -- I would say that we don't have a plan to procure that for our own use. We are pursuing other technologies that we would envision to be more appropriate for U.S. forces use, and something of a more mobile system
Transcript: Slocombe Briefing in Brussels on NATO, Missile Defense 08 June 2000 -- Most of the reporters' questions dealt with the proposed U.S. missile defense system and a Russian proposal for a cooperative defense program, although as Slocombe pointed out, "no specific details have been provided by the Russian side."
Nonproliferation Challenges in Asia, 07 June 2000 -- Statement by Robert J. Einhorn, Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation, before The Asia Society, Hong Kong
U-S / ISRAEL LASER Voice of America 07 June 2000 -- Missile expert John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists says it will be much harder to shoot down long- range ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons and travel much higher, faster and farther.
Laser shoots down rocket for first time By Jim Wolf Reuters - June 7, 2000 - The capability to shoot down a target with an experimental airborne laser was first demonstrated by the United States in the late 1970s, said John Pike, director of the space policy project at the Federation of American Scientists.
Army's new high-tech laser is right on target By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY June 7, 2000 - John Pike, a weapons analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, said THEL has no foreseeable applications for U.S. forces.
TRW Uses World's First Laser Weapon to Shoot Down Operational Rocket June 7, 2000 - The successful intercept and destruction of a Katyusha rocket occurred on June 6 at approximately 3:48 p.m. EDT at the Army's High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility (HELSTF).
STRV-2 Launch Is Success JUNE 7, 2000 -- The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) announced today that its Space Technology Research Vehicle-2 (STRV-2) was successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Team ABL Continues Making Progress with Delivery of Two Airborne Laser Steering Mirrors 06 June 2000 -- A team of engineers has delivered two prototype, fast-steering mirrors for the Airborne Laser (ABL) theater-ballistic-missile defense system to Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Hearts and Minds - The NMD's Geopolitical Ripples By Rhee Tong-chin Korea Times 05 June 2000 -- John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) argued that the Russian and Chinese objection to the American deployment of the National Missile Defense System concerns the more vigorous and aggressive ``projection of American diplomacy backed up by force.''
U.S. National Missile Defense: Looking Past the Headlines Address by Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, USAF Director, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization To The Year 2000 Multinational BMD Conference Philadelphia, PA June 5, 2000 -- A growing number of countries can do us harm using ballistic missiles, and their views concerning the use of weapons of mass destruction are different from ours. Missiles are spreading to dangerous states whose leaders we may not be able to deter in every instance. Active defenses are not just about providing basic protection. They also will help preserve our freedom of action and remove a hostile state’s capability to coerce U.S. foreign policy or shape national security decisions.
Text: Vershbow on National Missile Defense: Political Implications 03 June 2000 -- Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. Permanent Representative on the North Atlantic Council, discussed the political and security implications of a limited national missile defense (NMD) deployment at the XVIIth International Workshop on Political-Military Decision-Making in Berlin June 3.

May

Army tests missile-tracking system (Army News Service, May 31, 2000) Joint National Test Facility personnel tracked the launch of a modified U.S. Air Force Minuteman II missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
DoD News Briefing May 30, 2000 -- We have always realized that there is a possibility that there could be a sea-based supplement to, or element in, a national missile defense system.
MISSILE DEFENSE-THREE Voice of America 30 May 2000 -- Whether or not it works as intended, critics worry that a proposed U-S ballistic missile defense system could prompt a nuclear arms race.
MISSILE DEFENSE-TWO Voice of America 30 May 2000 -- The debate in the United States over ballistic missile defense concerns both its technology and its strategic impact. Supporters are sure it will work; critics say it will not.
MISSILE DEFENSE-ONE Voice of America 30 May 2000 -- Ballistic missile defense is expected to be a major topic at the upcoming summit between President Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But analysts say that is all it will be: talk.
Governor Bush, Clinton Administration Spar Over Missile Defense CNN SUNDAY May 28, 2000 -- JOHN PIKE, FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: When they look at these plans, they're going to think that this would disarm them. They're going to wind up building a lot more missiles pointed at America.
Army Space and Missile Defense Command demonstrates new ballistic missile target On May 28, 2000, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) successfully conducted the demonstration flight of the Orbital/Suborbital Program, or OSP, Target Launch Vehicle, or TVL.
Airborne Laser Program Team Members to 'Celebrate' Critical Design Review This Week April 27, 2000 -- Three and one-half years following the start of design work on a revolutionary airborne theater ballistic-missile defense system, Team ABL this week successfully completed final critical review of its robust design for the Airborne Laser system.
HUNGARY - NATO PARLIAMENT Voice of America 27 May 2000 -- European NATO member nations accused the United States of working on its own to develop a system known as the National Missile Defense system, or N-M-D.
Missile Defense Now By George W. Bush Washington Times May 25, 2000 -- America must build effective missile defenses, based on the best available options, at the earliest possible date.
MISSILE FRAUD Voice of America 25 May 2000 -- A prominent weapons expert says the planned U-S missile defense system will not work, and charges that officials have lied to cover up the program's flaws.
Bush Vows To Beef Up Star Wars By RICHARD SISK [New York] Daily News 24 May 2000 -- "Basically, this is just the missile defense plan his [Bush's] daddy inherited from Ronald Reagan," said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists.
Bush Seeks Deployment of Missile Defense and Reduction of Missiles May 24, 2000 - George W. Bush today called for a national security policy focused on creating a missile defense system to protect all 50 states and U.S. friends and allies, combined with reductions in the number of nuclear missiles consistent with America’s national security.
Statement By Douglas Hattaway Regarding George W. Bush's Press Conference on Nuclear Weapons - Al Gore proposes a more responsible approach to protecting America that is realistic, feasible and likely to ensure real security.
New Leadership on National Security Governor George W. Bush, Washington, D.C. May 23, 2000 -- Now the approach it proposes is flawed – a system initially based on a single site, when experts say that more is needed. The administration is driving toward a hasty decision, on a political timetable. No decision would be better than a flawed agreement that ties the hands of the next President and prevents America from defending itself.
BUSH-NUCLEAR Voice of America 23 May 2000 -- Republican presidential candidate George W-Bush would build a national missile defense network - which, he says, the Clinton administration should not prevent.
DOD supports nationwide crisis management exercise (AFPN) 22 May 2000 -- Top Off -- an acronym for "Top Officials," which unites the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FBI, DOD and other agencies -- is a 10-day, multi-agency crisis management and consequence management exercise.
Postol Complains of Improper Classification, letter to White House Chief of Staff John Podesta from MIT Professor Theodore Postol, May 19, 2000 -- I therefore conclude that Mr. Englander is most likely attempting to illegally use the security and classification system to hide waste, fraud, and abuse by his agency, the BMDO.
DoD News Briefing Thursday, May 18, 2000 -- Now, let me just say one thing directed at Dr. Postol's letter. He focused primarily on one test, so-called the Integrated Flight Test 1A. That test occurred several years ago, and it involved an interceptor made by Boeing TRW. When Boeing came to make the choice of the kill vehicle, the interceptor vehicle, it did not choose its own kill vehicle. It chose instead one made by Raytheon.
MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 18 May 2000 -- A prominent critic of Washington's efforts to build a system to shoot down attacking ballistic missiles says a key part of the scheme does not work and never will.
ANTHRAX Voice of America 17 May 2000 -- Defense Secretary William Cohen says the U-S Military will continue vaccinating troops against the deadly anthrax virus -- even though dozens of members of Congress are demanding a halt to the controversial program.
Postol Analysis of BMDO Integrated Flight Test - 1A, letter to White House Chief of Staff John Podesta from MIT Professor Theodore Postol, May 11, 2000 -- The BMDO's own data shows that the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle will be defeated by the simplest of balloon decoys. I also have documentation that shows that the BMDO... attempted to hide this fact....

Attachment A:Explanation of Why the Sensor in the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) Cannot Reliably Discriminate Decoys from Warheads -- Even under the highly orchestrated conditions of the IFT-1A experiment, the sensor flyby data showed that for at least some of the objects, there were no features in the data to indicate that they were not the warhead.
Attachment B: Technical Discussion of the Misinterpreted Results of theIFT-1A Experiment Due to Tampering With the Data and Analysis and Errors in the Interpretation of the Data -- "These meaningless figures, and the associated meaningless conclusions reached by the BMDO and POET, simply illustrate that complex mathematical procedures, of any kind, applied mindlessly to data that contains no information, will inevitably lead to a meaningless result."
Attachment C: Collected and Annotated Defense Criminal Investigation Service Documents Associated With the Investigation of Tampering With the Scientific and Technical Data and Analysis from the IFT-1A National Missile Defense Experiment
Attachment D: Independent Review of TRW Discrimination Techniques, Final Report, POET Study 1998-5, M-J. Tsai, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Larry Ng, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Glenn Light, Aerospace Corporation, Frank Handler, POET/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Charles Meins, MIT Lincoln Laboratory -- "Reliable prior knowledge on many of the threat types included in the TRD [Technical Requirements Document] cannot be obtained."

Key Missile Defense Radar Planned for Remote Island By Roberto Suro Washington Post Sunday, May 7, 2000; Page A06 -- The difficulty of erecting a radar dome on Shemya is driving the tight decision-making schedule that requires President Clinton to give a go-ahead by this fall for the system to be ready within five years.
ISRAEL / U-S / RADAR Voice of America 04 May 2000 -- Trials are now being conducted for laser technology to be used by Israel along its northern border to block rocket attacks by Lebanese guerrilla fighters.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy de Leon Media availability May 1, 2000 -- This is a system that is designed really to deal with the rogue threat. In the discussions, and it's very clear in some of the briefings, this is not a system that is designed to deal with the Russian strategic deterrence.

April

MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 26 April 2000 -- Defense Secretary William Cohen is questioning a new report that puts the cost of a proposed National Missile Defense (N-M-D) at 60 billion dollars --- roughly double previous estimates.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy de Leon Media Availability Monday, April 24, 2000 -- I think the general view is in fact it will take a little bit more than 30 days after the next shot to evaluate all of the data that comes in from the tests, so once that analysis is completed then you could go and do your critical review. So just working against the calendar, if the test is late June, then you're going to need a month to absorb all the data.

GLOBAL NETWORK MEMBERSHIP CALLS FOR PROTEST ACTIONS ON/BEFORE NEXT BMD TEST SET FOR JUNE 26 20 April 2000 -- At the Washington DC meetings of the Global Network the membership called for groups worldwide to organize local protest actions on/before the next scheduled test of the BMD system.
BUDGETARY AND TECHNICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATION'S PLAN FOR NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE Congressional Budget Office - April 2000
Army to test world's first combat laser KENT FAULK The Birmingham News 04/18/2000 -- John Pike, policy analyst for the Federation of American Scientists, said he believes there may be no real use for such a laser system.
Missile Defense Milestones: 1944 - 2000, April 2000
Missile Defense Chief Says System Can Deal with Countermeasures By Ralph Dannheisser Washington File 12 April 2000 -- The U.S. Air Force general overseeing development of the proposed national missile defense system says that a panel of scientists urging abandonment of the project misses the point of the effort.
Text: Air Force Official Says National Missile Defenses Are Highly Complex 06 April 2000 -- Air Force Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish told members of Congress and their staffs that the limited National Missile Defense (NMD) program being explored as a defense against a projected threat to the continental United States "is one of the most complex systems our country has ever attempted to develop and produce."
ANTHRAX STUDY Voice of America 04 April 2000 -- In a new report, U-S scientists say they don't know if a vaccine against anthrax causes any long term health problems.
ANTI-MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America03 April 2000 -- The Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers says a decision to deploy the proposed limited national missile defense would increase, rather than reduce, nuclear dangers.

March

Remarks by Lt Gen Ronald T. Kadish, USAF, Director, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, To The Congressional Breakfast Series, sponsored by National Defense University/National Defense Industrial Association Thursday, 30 March 2000 -- We are striving to deploy an initial NMD capability, or C-1, in fiscal '05. This will consist of 20 interceptors designed to counter a handful of missiles with simple countermeasures. We will move to an "expanded-capability-one" architecture, or Expanded C-1, in fiscal '07. By 2007, in other words, we plan to deploy a total of 100 interceptors. We won't seek approval to procure and deploy the ground-based interceptors and necessary spares until fiscal '03. A decision to build an X-Band Radar in Alaska will mean that site construction must begin in the spring of 2001. As a result of the fixes we have had to make, we postponed by two months the next integrated flight test, IFT-5, to June 26.
Excerpts: Defense Secretary Cohen on National Missile Defense Program 24 March 2000 -- Defense Secretary Cohen says that America's European allies have raised a number of concerns about a limited U.S. National Missile Defense (NMD) program including the possibility that pursuing NMD will upset the existing U.S.-Russian strategic stability that they see is provided by the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Pentagon Lowers, Meets Criteria For Missile Defense By Stephen Green San Diego Union-Tribune March 22, 2000 -- "It would be a bad career move for anyone at the Pentagon to tell the administration what it doesn't want to hear," said John Pike, a military expert with the Federation of American Scientists. "Even the original criteria were very modest and forgiving."
Spence Reacts to Patriot Missile (PAC-2) Failure, House Armed Services Committee, U.S. Congress, 23 March 2000 -- "I am very concerned by the recent failure rates of the PAC-2 missiles."
Testing of U.S. Missile Defense System Raises Many Questions CNN THE WORLD TODAY March 22, 2000 -- JOHN PIKE, FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: They can certainly make this thing work in tests most of the time. The challenge is to make it work in combat all of the time. Well, at the end of the day we are basically betting that unlike all of our other weapons systems, this thing is going to work perfectly in combat the first time because the risk of failure is that if one warhead gets through you have more dead Americans than were killed in every other war put together.
U-S MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 21 March 2000 -- The head of the Pentagon's national missile defense program says a testing delay will not keep President Clinton from deciding this summer on whether to deploy an anti-missile system.
U-S - PROLIFERATION Voice of America 21 March 2000 -- Senator John Kerry responded to Mr. Tenet's testimony by warning that the United States must not rush to develop a defense system that would alter the world's strategic balance.
MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 07 March 2000 -- The director of space policy at the Federation of American Scientists - John Pike - told V-O-A in a telephone interview that Washington has very little diplomatic room to maneuver on the issue. He says, in the end, the system will only make the world a more dangerous place.
Ex-Employee Says Contractor Faked Results of Missile Tests By WILLIAM J. BROAD The New York Times March 7, 2000 - Dr. Schwartz's allegations center on TRW's certifying to the government that interceptors using its computer programs would succeed more than 95 percent of the time in picking out enemy warheads, even if they were hidden in a confusing blur of decoys in space. In fact, Dr. Schwartz said in court documents, the interceptors could do so only 5 to 15 percent of the time.
Government Fraud and False Project/Technologies Dr. Nira Schwartz - For over ten years Contractor BOEING/TRW/NRC provided fraud and false technologies relative to a project known as Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV). Contract # DASG60-90-C-0165. Exo-atmospheric-kill-vehicle. BOEING/TRW/NRC provided to the Government false EKV performance reports, false test results, false test procedures, false robustness evaluation, false Risk Reduction test results and analysis. False discrimination performance that was based on alleged prior knowledge that was stated by the Government Technical Requirement Document (TRD) not to be available.
NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY March 6, 2000 -- The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) has published a notice of availability (NOA) for a supplement to the National Missile Defense (NMD) deployment draft environmental impact statement (EIS) that addresses the potential environmental impacts of proposed replacement of interior electronic hardware and computer software at existing early warning radar (EWR) facilities.
The President's NMD Decision and U.S. Foreign Policy: 3 March 2000 - President Clinton's senior adviser on arms control says that the key "to managing the diplomacy of NMD (National Missile Defense) deployment is Russia."
Rogue States Cannot Hope To Blackmail America Or Her Allies William S Cohen London Times March 1, 2000 -- Traditional deterrence rests on our ability to launch a devastating counter-strike against any country that uses weapons of mass destruction against America, its allies or deployed forces. Such measures worked against the Soviet Union, whose leaders were rational and risk-averse, but they may not deter rogue states whose leaders are indifferent to their people's welfare.

February

ABL uses balloons to gather turbulence data Air Force Print News 29 Feb 2000 -- Balloons launched here and from Doha, Qatar, provide vital information for the Airborne Laser Program.
Maintenance crew critical to ABL testing (AFPN) 28 Feb 2000 -- Specialists from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland, along with the crews from Det. 2 and the 452nd at Edwards are doing high-altitude atmospheric turbulence measurements.
U.S. NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE PLANS UNDER EDITORIAL FIRE OVERSEAS Foreign Media Reaction 23 February 2000 -- In limited comment since last month's unsuccessful U.S. missile defense test over the Pacific Ocean, the majority of editorialists from Russia, Europe and East Asia remained critical of potential U.S. plans to build and deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system and related administration efforts to secure Moscow's agreement on amending the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.
Crew gathers critical data for airborne laser program (AFPN) 18 Feb 2000 -- Preparations for future warfighting are happening now as a C-135E aircraft from Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., flies sorties from here to gather atmospheric measurements vital to the Airborne Laser program.
DOD officials disagree with House report on anthrax American Forces Press Service 18 Feb 2000 -- DOD officials said they have no intention of ending their program of mandatory anthrax vaccinations for service members, despite a House of Representatives panel's recommendation that the program should be suspended.
DoD Clarifies Exemptions to Anthrax Vaccination Program American Forces Press Service Feb 17, 2000 -- DoD officials are in the process of approving a policy that standardizes exemptions to the anthrax vaccination program. But, they said, they provided exemptions because it’s “good medicine,” not because of any concerns about the vaccine’s safety or efficacy.
Statement of Rep. Christopher Shays February 17, 2000 -- Today we release an oversight report entitled, "The Department of Defense Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program: Unproven Force Protection." We conclude the program is not sustainable in its present form. It is an unrealistically broad undertaking built on a dangerously narrow scientific, medical and industrial base.
THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ANTHRAX VACCINE IMMUNIZATION PROGRAM: UNPROVEN FORCE PROTECTION Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations, House Committee on Government Reform February 17, 2000 Because the anthrax vaccine is still being studied as a potential causative or contributing factor in Gulf War veterans illnesses, the Subcommittee measured the program against this standard: Any expanded use of the same vaccine should be undertaken only with the greatest care and only to the extent necessary. As currently designed and implemented, the anthrax vaccine program fails on both counts. The AVIP lacks a consistent standard of care and is designed to reach far beyond those at risk. The Subcommittee finds the AVIP a well-intentioned but overwrought response to the threat of anthrax as a biological weapon. Against the so-called "asymmetric" threats to US conventional military superiority posed by a growing range of chemical and biological weapons, the anthrax vaccine program represents a medical Maginot Line, a fixed fortification protecting against attack from only one direction.
DoD News Briefing - Dr. Sue Bailey, Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) and Major General Randy West, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Anthrax and Biological Defense Thursday, February 17, 2000 -- The Department of Defense is very confident in the anthrax program that we have undertaken. We have a very safe and effective vaccine against a very deadly biologic agent that we know to be in the hands of many of our adversaries and could be used against our forces.
ANTHRAX VACCINATIONS Voice of America 17 February 2000 -- New questions are being raised about the U-S military's plan to inoculate all service personnel against the deadly biological agent anthrax.
MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 15 February 2000 -- A senior US defense official is warning a decision whether to deploy a national missile defense system should not be rushed.
Iran, Iraq, N.Korea could be building arsenals for leverage By John Diamond Chicago Tribune February 14, 2000 -- "If one nuclear weapon gets through, you have more dead Americans than every other war put together," said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based group that follows national security issues. A president "is not going to bet the country" on the certainty that a national missile-defense system will work, he said.
The Next President's First Obligation By Henry Kissinger Washington Post February 9, 2000 Pg. 21 -- In my view, no administration serious about national security will be able to evade the need for missile defense. But an election year may not be the opportune time to choose the most effective option. In the light of recent ambiguous test results and imminent electoral preoccupations, it would be desirable to delay a final technical judgment until a new administration is in place.
Adverse reactions to anthrax vaccine remain minimal (AFPN) 09 February 2000 -- Despite concerns by some military members about adverse reactions to the anthrax immunization vaccine, the number of those reporting reactions remains low.
Biological Defenses On the Horizon By Linda D. Kozaryn American Forces Press Service 09 February 2000 -- DARPA launched the Biological Warfare Defense Program in 1996. Its goal is to develop technologies to thwart the use of biological warfare agents, including bacterial, viral, bioengineered organisms and toxins, by military opponents and terrorists.
MISSILE DEFENSES WILL NOT ELIMINATE NEED FOR NUCLEAR DETERRENCE By Jacquelyn S. Porth USIA 8 February 2000 -- Defense Secretary Cohen says the United States will continue to rely on nuclear deterrence to ensure that neither this nation nor its allies will ever be in a position of being blackmailed.
Missile Defense Would Counter Nuclear Blackmail By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service 07 February 2000 -- The National Missile Defense program would allow the United States to defend against rogue states threatening international blackmail, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said here Feb. 5.
PAC-3 Intercept Test a Success U.S. Army Program Executive Office Air and Missile Defense Feb. 5, 2000 -- The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Army conducted a test of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., today at 7:09 a.m. mountain standard time. Preliminary test data indicate the test was successful.
PAC-3 INTERCEPT TEST RESCHEDULED U.S. Army Program Executive Office Air and Missile Defense Feb. 4, 2000 -- This test was postponed Thursday after an error in the launch sequence of the Hera target caused a mission delay.
Cohen, European Allies to Discuss National Missile Defense By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service 04 February 2000 -- National Missile Defense is an idea that must be sold, not only to the Russians and Chinese, but to America’s European allies, said Defense Secretary William Cohen.
PAC-3 Intercept Test - Launch Postponed U.S. Army Program Executive Office Air and Missile Defense Feb. 3, 2000 -- The launch was postponed at 7:11 a.m. MST because of an error in the launch sequence of the target.
PAC-3 INTERCEPT TEST TO BE CONDUCTED AT WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE U.S. Army Program Executive Office Air and Missile Defense Feb. 2, 2000 -- To date, the PAC-3 missile has successfully completed four missions. The first two missions were developmental tests that consisted of missiles with special instrumentation packages in place of the seeker.

January

Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen News Briefing January 28, 2000 -- I think the technology is certainly proving to be on the right track. The miss that was involved was not by much. So I've made no judgment in terms of whether or not it should be delayed. I really don't anticipate any kind of a major confrontation with Congress going into this year. I don't expect that they are going to force my hand as such on the ABM Treaty.
Airborne Laser aircraft arrives at Wichita (AFPN) 24 January 2000 -- Over the next 18 months, this Airborne Laser -- a Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft -- will undergo changes at the Boeing facility here. The most noticeable difference will be installation of a turret in the aircraft nose.
The countdown to a missile defense By Richard J. Newman U.S.News & World Report 1/24/00 -- Under Republican pressure, Clinton and Gore have already adopted a bolder missile defense program than they backed just two years ago. Republicans continue to use the issue to set themselves apart.
Missile defense opens a Pandora's silo By BRAD GLOSSERMAN The Japan Times January 23, 2000 -- It has become apparent that, the administration's protests notwithstanding, efficacy will not determine whether the system is developed. In fact, John Pike, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists, believes the Clinton administration will be "compelled" to endorse national missile defense this summer.
Missile Test Failure Points to Bigger Problem By PAUL RICHTER, Los Angeles Times Saturday, January 22, 2000 -- Twenty years ago, the "Battle manager" system "was seen as a profound challenge," but with advances in computing and other technologies "today it's not seen as such," said John Pike, space analyst for the Federation of American Scientists. Still, the job is huge, and testing of the system remains at an early stage.
Politics is fuse of controversial missile program By BRETT DAVIS, The Huntsville Times 01/21/2000 -- ''Obviously, this is the most complicated weapon the Pentagon is buying, and it's being tested less than any other weapon,'' said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists.
ANOTHER ANTI-MISSILE MISSILE FAILURE Voice of America 21 January 2000 -- An unsuccessful anti-ballistic missile test by the United States is a popular topic on many newspaper editorial pages at week's end, as the nation debates the wisdom of going ahead with a defense against possible missile attacks by so-called "rogue" nations.
Infrared Systems Cause Missile Test to Fail By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service 20 January 2000 -- Preliminary data indicates two infrared sensors aboard the exoatmospheric kill vehicle, an experimental DoD missile, caused the failure of a National Missile Defense test Jan. 18.
DoD News Briefing Thursday, January 20, 2000 -- Right now, no decision has been made to change the date of the next test. That's scheduled for April or May -- late April or early May. If that test goes off on schedule, and if the results are good, I wouldn't anticipate that there'd be a delay in the Defense [sic] Readiness Review. This is a program that has considerable congressional support because of the perceived threat, and it has considerable support in this building because of the perceived threat. So we'll have to weigh a whole series of factors.
Seeker fault cited in failure of missile defense intercept test Aerospace Daily January 20, 2000 -- The best way for Clinton to make NMD a non-issue for Gore is to give an okay for deployment, which would be easier if there were three successful intercept tests before the review, Pike added.
Missile Test Off by 6 Seconds, Data Show PAUL RICHTER, Los Angeles Times January 20, 2000 -- As with the rest of the missile defense system, "there are so many things that could go wrong, and everything has to go right," said John Pike, an analyst with the Federation of American Scientists in Washington.
Pentagon: Sensors failed 'kill vehicle' in 2nd trial Critics fear that missile defense is being rushed Andrea Stone USA TODAY January 20, 2000 -- John Pike, a defense analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, suspects that even another test failure wouldn't kill the program. "This is a political decision driven by the need to defend Al Gore against the Republicans rather than defend America against missiles," he said.
Delay Sought in Decision on Missile Defense By ELIZABETH BECKER and ERIC SCHMITT The New York Times January 20, 2000 -- "The president's deployment decision will have more to do with defending Al Gore against George Bush than the American people against North Korea," said John Pike, of the Federation of American Scientists. "They will need a lot more tests to decide whether this will work."
REGIONAL VIEWS ON U.S. NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE PLANS, ABM TREATY REVISIONS Foreign Media Reaction 19 January 2000 -- Potential U.S. plans to build and deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system and related efforts to secure Russian agreement to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty met with widespread criticism from the vast majority of editorial writers from Russia, Europe, Asia and elsewhere.
Ballistic Missile Intercept Test Background Briefing Wednesday, January 19, 2000 -- If you take the ground test, the test preparation, the actual conducting of the test and the hardware, we estimate this is a $100 million test, it's a three-month campaign minimum to get to this test. I said the other day, you know, a miss doesn't necessarily mean a failure; a hit doesn't necessarily mean success. Everything appeared nominal till we got to the end-game and the kill vehicle failed to conduct the intercept. The target update went out, the EKV [exoatmospheric kill vehicle] separated, the first star shot -- remember the star shot from the last time -- opened his eyes, did the maneuver. Opened his eyes, saw the star, kicked back over, flew a little further, did the second star shot, and it appears -- it appears -- that when it opened its eyes a second time it didn't immediately see the star. So did his first step-function, saw the star, correlated itself, kicked over and started to look at the target, where it thought the target complex was. The bottom line is the star shots appeared to work this time, where last time they apparently didn't. It apparently saw the target complex nearly dead-center. This seeker has two infrared sensors and one visual light. It appears that the visual light sensor package acquired the target and began the discrimination process. It appears that there was an anomaly or an issue with the IR sensor packages -- IR being the infrared. The test set-up was to use the IR in the very end-game. The very end-game time sequence was just under six seconds. Preliminary indications -- and I want to emphasize "preliminary" -- is that the visual light sensor was able to do the discrimination between decoy and RV.
WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFING January 19, 2000 -- There's no reason at this point to believe that they can't meet their summer deadline of making a recommendation to the President, but it's not something that's completely knowable at this point.
Deployment of Missile Defense System Could Cause New Arms Races With Russia, China CNN THE WORLD TODAY January 19, 2000 -- JOHN PIKE, FED. OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: I think that Clinton's political advisers are basically going to say, let's go ahead and deploy this thing, take away the Republican's campaign issue, and we'll let President Gore sort the mess out after he gets elected.
Test missile fails, but Russia still blasts program By PAMELA HESS United Press International January 19, 2000 -- According to John Pike, senior analyst with the Washington, D.C.-based Federation of American Scientists, "Clinton's going to say yes (to a deployment decision in June) regardless of what happens. The whole thing is being driven by the presidential campaign," Pike told United Press International. "No self-respecting Democratic campaign manager is going to let a few engineers at a test range get in the way of getting Al Gore elected. We're talking practical politics. The Republicans want to make (national missile defense) a campaign issue. The Democrats will make it go away as a campaign issue by calling for deploying it," he said.
U.S. Missile Intercept Test Fails CBS News January 19, 2000 - According to John Pike, Federation of American Scientists, "It's obvious that a lot of the pieces of (the prototype) worked. The problem of course, is that in actual combat all of the pieces are going to have to work, or the system fails completely. And the most important part, actually killing the warhead, didn't happen here."
MISSILE TEST FAILS Voice of America 19 January 2000 -- Critics of the effort to build missile defenses, including Tom Collina of the Union of Concerned Scientists, say President Clinton should delay that decision.
U-S MISSILE DEFENSE Voice of America 19 January 2000 -- John Isaacs, president and arms control spokesman for the liberal Council for a Livable World, says the Clinton Administration has placed itself in a political bind by promising a deployment decision by June, when only limited testing data on the N-M-D program will be available.
MISSILE TEST Voice of America 18 January 2000 -- The United States is set to make a key test of a system designed to protect the country against ballistic missiles Tuesday evening.
DoD News Briefing Tuesday, January 18, 2000 -- We won't know whether we can call this an integrated systems test until after the test is over and all of the data has been evaluated. If all the elements work successfully, based on post-flight analysis, then we can consider this an integrated systems test. If the test fails in the sense that the interceptor does not hit the reentry vehicle, it would be difficult to call it a successful integrated systems test. The Ballistic Missile Defense Office set the two successful intercepts, one of which is an integrated systems test, as the bare minimum standard that would give them confidence that we can proceed with the program.
U.S. TEST OF MISSILE DEFENSE FAILS John Diamond Chicago Tribune January 19, 2000 -- "A simple political commitment by this president to deploy a national missile defense simply inoculates Al Gore in the fall campaign" said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists.
'Star wars' shield threatens treaties Justin Brown The Christian Science Monitor TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2000 -- "North Korea is an absurd reason to make such a high-risk decision," says Charles Ferguson of the American Federation of Scientists. "No other country in the world shares the fear that North Korea is an imminent nuclear threat."
NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE CONDUCTS INTERCEPT TEST January 18, 2000 -- The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's (BMDO) National Missile Defense (NMD) Joint Program Office announced it performed a test today involving a planned intercept of a ballistic missile target over the central Pacific Ocean. An intercept was not achieved.
Missile Shield Still Drawing Friends, Fire Bradley Graham Washington Post January 17, 2000 -- . Specialists such as Postol, his MIT colleague George Lewis and John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists in Washington argue that the system can be readily defeated by, for instance, dispersing lightweight warhead replicas alongside the real thing.
Missile Test FOX NEWS NETWORK SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRIT HUME January 17, 2000 -- JOHN PIKE, FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: In the real world, there are going to be a hundred objects out there. They're all going to look the same. And there's no way to tell which one's the real warhead. They got lucky in this test. They're not going to get lucky in combat.
MISSILE DEFENSE TEST Voice of America 14 January 2000 -- Defense expert John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists says the president faces political as well as technical questions.
Background Briefing: National Missile Defense Friday, 14 January, 2000 -- IFT-4, Integrated Flight Test No. 4 is a fourth in our series of flight tests, but this is our second attempt to try to do an actual intercept of an ICBM-class target at a closing speed of about 15,000 miles an hour, and the altitude will be in excess of 120 miles. This will be the first time we will begin integrating other elements of the NMD system into the actual test scenario. This setup is a simulated reentry vehicle and one large balloon. But since the balloon has a different signature than a normal decoy would -- a normal decoy would look like a regular RV -- it makes it much easier than a real-life situation. Whether Integrated Flight Test 4 will be deemed an integrated systems test has not been decided yet, for the purposes of the DRR. In Integrated Flight Test 5, which is scheduled for April or May, we will have another element as part of the BMC3, the IFICS -- the In-Flight Interceptor Communications System.

Guard Teams to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service 13 January 2000 -- DoD announced plans Jan. 13 to form 17 more Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams, bringing the total nationwide to 27.
DoD Helps Hometown USA Confront Terrorism By Linda D. Kozaryn American Forces Press Service 13 January 2000 -- In the event that terrorists strike, DoD is considering ways to best support civil authorities in the event of terrorist attacks involving nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. Contrary to some critics' view that defense officials and the media have hyped the threat, DoD and the media share a responsibility for educating the public.
Task Force Counters Terrorist WMD Threat By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service 13 January 2000 -- The Joint Task Force, part of U.S. Joint Forces Command, will always work only in support of a civilian federal lead agency. The FBI would be the lead agent for investigations.
DOD ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR 17 NEW WMD CIVIL SUPPORT TEAMS January 13, 2000 - Beginning in fiscal 2000, Guard members selected for these 17 new teams will undergo 15 months of rigorous individual and unit training. Following the training, they will be evaluated for operational certification.
DoD News Briefing Thursday, January 13, 2000 -- Secretary Cohen is announcing the establishment and location of 17 additional weapons-of-mass- destruction civil support teams. The WMD civil support teams will be able to deploy rapidly, assist local first-responders in determining the nature of an attack, provide medical and technical advice, and pave the way for the identification and arrival of follow-on state and federal military response assets. Each WMD civil support team consists of 22 highly skilled full-time members of the Army National Guard or the Air National Guard. The Department of Defense has no plans to create 54 teams. The Department of Defense is going to implement the 27 teams that have been authorized by Congress. In fiscal year 1999, we expended a little over $60 million to train up and employ and equip these teams.
Pentagon said to lack understanding of satellite's vulnerability to attack The Associated Press January 5, 2000, John Pike, a representative of the military weapons watchdog group Federation of American Scientists, said such high-tech military testing will encourage other nations to develop anti-satellite weapons. "We live in a glass house," Pike said. "We should not be organizing rock-throwing contests."
Should The U.S Have A Missile Defense System? YES By Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas American Legion January 2000 - We need a reliable and effective national missile defense system. Defending America outweighs our Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with a nation (the Soviet Union) that no longer exists.
Should The U.S Have A Missile Defense System? NO By Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga. American Legion January 2000 - President Reagan called for an anti-ballistic missile defense system 16 years ago. Forty billion dollars later, we don't have a weapon that can shoot down an ICBM.

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