10 July 2001
US Defense Secretary plays down next missile defense test
By Robert Burns
AP Military Writer

The test July 14 will be the first in over a year of a national missile defense system that relies on ground-based interceptors to knock out incoming warheads in space, an approach favored by the previous administration.

"This is one more in a reasonably robust test series," Rumsfeld said of the test to intercept a modified Minuteman missile over the Pacific with an interceptor missile fired from Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands.

"Of course each one will be watched with interest," he added, cautioning against making too much of the results. 

"My guess is that the outcome will be unfortunately simplified when it is over, as either succeeding or not succeeding," he said. "But of course in any advanced technology activity, it is seldom that simple."

Two of three previous interception attempts failed, prompting former president Bill Clinton to defer a decision whether to order deployment of the system by 2005.

The new administration has emphasized more testing for the ground-based system while exploring the feasibility of other approaches, including sea-based interceptors and airborne and space-based lasers.

The Pentagon expects the effort to run afoul of the US-Soviet 1972 ABM treaty, which Moscow and many others regard as a cornerstone of international arms control regimes.

Missile defense was the subject of extended discussion Monday between Rumsfeld and visiting French Defense Minister Alain Richard, who said the US project continues to pose a problem for European nations.

"The discussion continues" over US missile defense plans, Richard said, but stressed that "there are many common security problems between Europeans and Americans over the next decades."

Later, however, the French defense minister told AFP the US missile defense program could pose a problem for France and the rest of Europe.

"The place and relevance of the program vis-a-vis real security threats continue to present a problem," Richard said.

The French minister acknowledged that European and Americans have differences in assessing security requirement for the next several decades.

"But the Bush administration doesn't want to look as if it is imposing this system on its allies in a rough manner," Richard stressed, noting that Europeans and Americans remained allies.