Pentagon Report Backs Sea-Based Missile Defenses

A classified Pentagon report concludes that sea-based national missile defenses could be built with existing technology and would add both flexibility and firepower to the land-based system proposed by President Clinton, senior defense officials said Friday.

The report by the Defense Department’s Ballistic Missile Defense Organization will provide ammunition to critics of the Clinton system from all sides of the ideological spectrum who are eager to present credible alternatives.

Clinton is scheduled to decide in early fall whether to begin construction of a land-based system that would start in 2005 with a force of 20 interceptor missiles based in Alaska, growing to 100 interceptors in 2007. Many conservatives, including George W. Bush, want to build a bigger missile defense system.