Fight over missile defense rages on 25 years later

The mission was a critical test of the "hit-to-kill" technology at the heart of the U.S. missile defense program, an idea born at the height of the Cold War when Ronald Reagan outlined his vision for a network of missiles that could shoot enemy weapons out of the sky or space. Back then, skeptics dismissed the proposal as pure fantasy, nicknaming it Star Wars.

Twenty-five years later, the satellite operation--which used a Navy cruiser equipped with Lockheed Martin Corp. technology and Raytheon Co. missiles and radar systems--showed the world it could be done.

But behind the hoopla, a fierce debate rages over the ability of the missile defense system to defend the nation from an actual attack and the billions of dollars that President Bush has devoted to the program--funding levels that could be cut in half under the next administration.

Since 1983, the government has invested roughly $115 billion in hit-to-kill technology, including $57.8 billion since President George W. Bush took office. Missile defense is now a $10-billion-a-year Defense Department program that oversees a vast network of radars, sensors and interceptors stretching from Japan to Alaska to Europe.

But according to Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a foundation dedicated to preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, "the missile defense bubble is about to burst."

Cirincione and other critics argue that sophisticated missile defense systems--particularly those targeting long-range ballistic missiles--can easily be outsmarted using rudimentary technology. They also warn that the program's very existence could make the world more dangerous.

To be sure, missile defense has staunch supporters inside the Pentagon and the defense industry. They insist that while the Cold War is over, the program is even more critical in a world threatened by rogue states and terrorist groups. Although missile defense accounts for just a small slice of total revenue for the big military contractors, significant cuts to the program would be a symbolic blow to the industry.

Today's missile defense program dates back to Reagan's 1983 plan to make missile threats obsolete at a time when America relied on a deterrence policy of "mutually assured destruction." Bush moved missile defense beyond the lab.

David Berteau, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, said money poured into the program following the 2001 terrorist attacks. The Bush administration in 2002 withdrew from a key arms treaty signed with the Soviet Union in 1972 to build a missile shield.