Cohen: Reliable Missile System Can Be Built

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Friday he remains optimistic that the Pentagon can build a reliable national missile defense despite the failure of a missile interceptor test last week.

“The science is there” to build a system of radars and interceptors that could defend all 50 states against a limited attack by long-range ballistic missiles, Cohen said in an interview in his Pentagon office.

Cohen said the interceptor launched last week from the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands missed its target--a mock warhead sent aloft by a Minuteman missile from more than 4,000 miles away--by less than 100 feet. That was a more precise description of the outcome than Pentagon officials had previously provided.

The exact reason the intercept missed is being sought, Cohen said.

Cohen said he intends to give President Clinton a recommendation this summer on whether to commit to deploying a national missile defense. If the commitment is made, the plan is to have it ready for use by 2005.

The Defense secretary said Clinton would take into account the level of threat posed by countries, such as North Korea, that are trying to build long-range ballistic missile forces.

“The threat is there and is likely to grow,” Cohen said.

On other topics, Cohen said:

* The Russian army is bogged down in its war in Chechnya to the point where the outcome is uncertain. “Whatever victory they might secure, they certainly have to face a long-term type of guerrilla warfare,” he said.

* The 2001 defense budget, to be submitted by President Clinton on Feb. 7, will include about $60 billion to buy new weapons. About $1 billion of that will be devoted to repairing shortcomings exposed in the Kosovo war last spring, including the purchase of an additional Joint Stars ground surveillance aircraft, an additional squadron of Navy EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft and more unmanned surveillance planes.

* He intends to ask Congress again this year for authority to close more military bases. He did not sound optimistic about the chances of persuading Congress, which has refused to grant such authority in each of the last three years.

* The Pentagon’s policy on gays in the military, in which homosexuals are permitted to serve as long as they don’t reveal their sexual orientation, is “generally being implemented effectively,” despite highly publicized lapses.