Clinton Proposes $7 Billion for Missile Defense System

President Clinton wants to put about $7 billion over a six-year period toward building a national missile defense to guard against a “limited” missile attack, the Pentagon’s spokesman said Thursday.

The system is supposed to protect the nation against ballistic missile attack, but the technology has not yet been proved.

Proponents say a limited missile shield is needed to protect against an accidental launch of a nuclear missile or an attack by a rogue nation.

Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon told reporters that Clinton will not make any decision about building such a system until several critical tests are conducted.

A key test will take place in June, when a dummy missile is to be fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base. An interceptor missile will be fired from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in an attempt to strike the dummy missile.

The Pentagon effort in the past decade to develop antimissile systems that might protect U.S. troops and specific targets has had technological and other problems, including five successive test failures of the proposed theater high-altitude missile defense system, or THAAD.

The funds will be part of Clinton’s new budget for 2000, which will be sent to Congress next month. It also includes long-term spending plans up to 2005.

Bacon declined to specify how the $7 billion would be dispersed among those years within the budget.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have made increased funding for national security and missile defense priorities.

Although $40 billion has been spent toward developing such a system since former President Reagan announced his ambitious Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed “Star Wars,” in 1993, no working system is in place.

The administration’s plan, criticized by Republicans, has been to develop a national ballistic missile defense by 2000. Then, depending on an assessment of threat levels, it could put the plan in place within another three years.

Republicans argue that it should be placed as soon as technologically feasible.

Bacon defended the administration’s plans.

“Our basic program is on track, which is to work to develop a national missile defense system that has the capability of providing defense against a relatively small attack,” Bacon said.

“It would protect the whole United States” from accidental or limited nuclear attack if a decision is made to deploy such a system, Bacon said. He stressed that no decision on deployment would be made until at least next year.

The system envisioned under the Clinton plan differs substantially from “Star Wars.” Reagan proposed a space-based shield against massive attacks involving thousands of warheads launched simultaneously by what was then the Soviet Union.

The Clinton plan would consist of ground-based radar and ground-launched interceptor rockets. Infrared detectors in space would pinpoint the plume of an attacking missile and use satellites to convey information about an incoming missile track to the interceptors.