NITROGEN GAS LEAK FOULS US DEFENSE TEST

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It was a nitrogen gas leak that foiled last month's missile defense test. Phew...Good to know it was "simply" a plumbing leak. Am I glad we don't have to worry about complications from y2k.

Plumbing leak caused U.S. anti-missile failure

By Charles Aldinger

WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - A simple plumbing leak of frigid nitrogen gas apparently foiled last month's U.S. national missile defense test over the Pacific Ocean and will cause a minor delay in the program, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

"We are 95 percent sure that (the leak) was the problem," Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon told Reuters, adding that the $100 million test failure could cause a delay of perhaps weeks in a third test of the controversial defense system previously scheduled for late April or early May.

Bacon said investigators had virtually concluded that no significant design flaw caused the experimental "hit-to-kill" interceptor, which was fired from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, to miss a streaking dummy warhead target in space on Jan. 18.

"The good thing about this is that it is fairly easy to fix. You don't have to tear the whole thing apart," Bacon said.

President Bill Clinton plans to make a decision this summer, as early as July, on whether immediately to begin building a system of 100 interceptors based in Alaska or further delay deployment until the United States has more confidence that the system, designed to block possible missile launches by "rogue states" such as North Korea, will work. The missile defense system is bitterly opposed by Russia and China and has caused major concerns among Washington's European allies.

Last October's first test of the limited defense system was successful when the interceptor weapon built by Raytheon Co. smashed into and destroyed a target warhead in the same area.

Bacon said that the leak in the interceptor weapon occurred in a metal tube that transfers frigid nitrogen gas to two infrared sensors, enabling them to "see" a warhead's heat signature in space.

Pentagon officials said shortly after the test that failure of the two sensors in the final six seconds of the weapon's approach to the warhead caused the miss. Defense Secretary William Cohen told reporters recently that the miss was probably by less than 100 feet 33 metres.

OVERALL SYSTEM APPARENTLY WORKS

The overall system, which is coordinated and managed by Boeing Co. , apparently worked well in January's test. Aside from the plumbing leak, almost everything else went right during the January test, including the first-time use of satellites and ground-based tracking radar to guide the Raytheon interceptor.

Clinton is under heavy pressure from Republican leaders in Congress to proceed quickly with a slimmed-down version of former President Ronald Reagan's space-based "Star Wars" missile defense in order to protect U.S. cities against possible limited future attacks by nations such as North Korea, Iraq and Iran.

But Russia, fearing such a defense could mature and neutralize its massive arsenal of nuclear weapons, has refused to agree to a request from Washington to modify the 1972 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty so that the limited defense system can proceed without violating the treaty.

Moscow also has threatened to put major nuclear arms reduction treaties, including START-2, at risk in the fight and Washington's European allies are deeply concerned over that prospect.

The Washington Post on Tuesday quoted White House officials as saying there had been no change in a June deadline for the Pentagon to make a recommendation to Clinton on whether to proceed with the deployment or delay it.

Many private defense experts have charged that the United States should not begin building the $12 billion system until it works beyond any reasonable doubt.

An independent Pentagon panel of former military leaders and industry experts warned last year that the administration should not "rush to failure" in the expensive system.

11:30 02-08-00

-- (cashtradr@aol.com), February 08, 2000

Answers

---two posible scenarios I see withe king klown:

1--he'll not approve it anyway, no matter if it works really great or not

2-he'll approve it, and immediately hand over all the research and documents to china and russia, in order to make the world safe for "peace" or some such happy sounding phrase, and oh ya, it'll have to have the phrase "for the children" in there someplace, too.

3--there is actually a third scenario, highly unlikely, some clear thinking and patriotic individual in the secretive service will finally cry "ENOUGH!" to himself, and walk up and slap the cuffs on him and read him his rights.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 08, 2000.


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