It has a record of dismal failure. Fifty Nobel laureates this week called it a waste of money that will jeopardise world peace. The White House privately hopes it will not work. But the US National Missile Defence (NMD) project is proceeding at full steam.
In a test today, the Pentagon will make its third attempt to shoot down a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean.
If the test works there will be intense pressure on President Bill Clinton to approve the first phase of the US$60 billion (HK$463 billion) programme - known as the 'son of Star Wars' - which comprises an array of radars, missiles and computers supposed to provide the US with a shield against missile attack by 'rogue states'. In the event of a miss, the Defence Department may still recommend deployment of the system - depending on the seriousness of the failure.
The test has been manipulated to give it every possible chance of success. The interceptor launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific will 'know' where the target is coming from and where it is heading. The mock warhead, which will take off 200km north of Los Angeles, will be travelling relatively slowly and will continually broadcast its position to the interceptor.
On Thursday, Defence Department spokesman Rear-Admiral Craig Quigley denied the test had been 'dumbed down' to make the target missile easier to intercept. 'I can assure you this is a test, not a demonstration,' he said, adding the trial was the most complex - and risky - of three intercepts tried so far.
Weather permitting, a modified Minuteman intercontinental missile will be fired from the Vandenberg air force base in California, towards the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean in a simulation of an attack from a pariah state such as Iran or North Korea. Twenty minutes later, on Kwajalein Atoll, 4,300 nautical miles away, a 'kill vehicle' will be fired aboard a missile.
