House Panel Urges Caution on ‘Star Wars’ Deployment : Defense: The report warns that the first phase of the SDI system may not be adequately tested.

The House Government Operations Committee warned Sunday that deployment of the first phase of the Strategic Defense Initiative could become another ill-fated Hubble telescope.

Citing Pentagon documents, testimony at hearings and a General Accounting Office report released in July, the panel raised serious questions about deploying the system, commonly known as “Star Wars,” in 1993.

In January, the Pentagon incorporated the “Brilliant Pebbles” concept into Phase 1 of the SDI system. That technology involves several thousand interceptors that would orbit the Earth to seek and destroy a target by smashing into it at high speeds.

Phase 1 also involves seven highly integrated elements, including two space-based sensors, a space-based weapon, two ground-based sensors, a ground-based weapon and a command and control system.

The GAO said that detailed tests planned by the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization won’t be completed before the scheduled executive decision on deployment in 1993.

The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization is a Defense Department agency that oversees the Star Wars program.

Based on the problems of incomplete testing, the GAO said it doesn’t believe the SDI organization “will be able to give the President enough information to support a 1993 decision to deploy Phase 1.”

“The fallacy of sacrificing adequate testing for early deployment is highlighted by the Hubble Space Telescope,” Democrats and Republicans on the committee said in the 39-page report.

“This is but a small example of the problems that could beset a far more complex (SDI) system composed of thousands of space-based components,” the report said.

Shortly after the $1.5-billion Hubble telescope was launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery last April, officials discovered a problem with the primary mirror that was providing a blurred view of the universe.