Target ‘Left the Light On’ in Missile Defense Test

Re “Tougher Test Delayed for Missile Net,” Aug. 16: How in the world could your writer characterize as a “success” the July 14 missile defense test, when in that exercise and all previous exercises the target had to signal its location to the interceptor with a beacon? And how can Lt. Gen. Ronald T. Kadish, director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, say he is confident that the interceptor will eventually be able to distinguish an incoming missile from decoys when it can’t even hit one real target without a welcome sign posted on it? Given the cost of this missile shield, both financially and in foreign relations, I would hope that its creators would be doing more than “feeling [their] way” with it, as Kadish blatantly states.

Linda L. Cordeiro

Los Angeles

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Assuming our great scientists and engineers can make “Star Wars” really work, it is still worthless for our defense. Any enemy nation or terrorist group that wishes to inflict serious damage in the U.S. can easily do so. Our borders permit thousands of tons of illegal drugs to enter our country. What would stop a determined group from bringing in a few hundred pounds of material to build and explode a nuclear weapon at a damaging location on U.S. soil? This would outflank missile defenses, as the Nazis outflanked the Maginot Line, and would have the added advantage that we would have no easy proof of the identity of the criminals.

Henry Epstein

Long Beach