Keep Testing Missile System

President Bush has put his administration on the side of strict accountability and frequent testing, with real consequences for failure. At least for schools. When it comes to the performance of a missile defense program that’s supposed to protect the United States from nuclear annihilation, a different set of standards apparently applies. As reported by The Times’ Esther Schrader on Monday, the administration has asked Congress to exempt ballistic missile defenses, perhaps for good, from normal Pentagon operational testing. That would clear the way to start deploying them in 2004. At that point, the bumpers on the family sedan would be better-tested than the nation’s missile defenses.

The director of the Defense Department’s operational test and evaluation office currently has to certify that major weapons systems actually work before they’re put in the field. No major program has ever been formally allowed to skip field operational testing. Testing goals in the past have been reduced, though not eliminated, with bad results. The Marines’ V-22 Osprey was tested 33 times instead of the scheduled 103. It has been plagued with problems, crashing twice and killing 23 Marines in 2000.

The missile defense program relies on far more exotic technology than the Osprey. Common sense says it should be tested rigorously. The illogic of the administration’s request is a sure sign that it is driven by politics. Speedy deployment is favored by defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, for which missile defense is a potential financial bonanza, and by unflinching true believers such as Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). But consider the test record so far. One highly touted system, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense, which uses truck-mounted launchers, failed six out of eight tests. Critics charge that successful tests of interceptors have not simulated actual conditions but rather have been rigged for success.

As soon as possible, the administration plans to build an elaborate defense system with land- and sea-based interceptors, airborne lasers and space-based weapons. It intends to deploy up to 20 ground and 20 sea-based interceptors by 2005. They need top-notch detection systems, but the 1970s radar the Pentagon would rely on in Alaska has never been tested against a long-range ballistic missile and it’s doubtful that it could distinguish between a missile and a decoy.

To justify the buildup, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld says there is “no doubt in my mind” that North Korea has a missile that could reach the U.S. Maybe so. But hasty construction of untested missile defenses is not a reasonable response. Without testing, the Pentagon -- and U.S. taxpayers -- has no way of knowing whether the defense system is just a high-tech Maginot Line, providing the illusion without the substance of national security.