(See also: Missile defense to be ready in 2005
U.S. Seeks To Amend Arms Treaty)

The Clinton administration yesterday pledged $6.6 billion over five years to field a national missile defense system, reversing years of official skepticism about whether it was necessary or even possible to build a weapon that could detect and shoot down enemy missiles racing toward the United States.

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said the system was needed to respond to a growing missile threat from North Korea and other nations. He said the administration would pursue the program, an heir to Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" proposals, even if Russia were to charge that it violates the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty signed by the United States.

"We are affirming that there is a threat, and the threat is growing, and that it will pose a danger not only to our troops overseas but also to Americans here at home," Cohen said.

Because a workable missile defense must still overcome daunting technological obstacles, Pentagon officials said a system probably could not be deployed until 2005, two years later than originally predicted. Officials said they would decide in June 2000 whether they had achieved the technological breakthroughs and assess whether military threats still warranted construction of the system.

The national anti-missile system, championed for years by congressional Republicans, currently is allotted $4 billion for research and development. The $6.6 billion announced yesterday, which will be included in the president's budget submitted to Congress next month, is to build the missiles, radars and buildings that would comprise the system, officials said.

Over the past two decades the United States has spent tens of billions of dollars on engineering a weapons system that could detect and blow up incoming missiles in midair. Versions under development by the Army and Navy to protect troops in the field have had repeated problems or are largely untested.

The national system envisioned by the Clinton administration includes a satellite-based sensor that would detect the exhaust of a foreign missile immediately after lift-off. Early warning radars in California, Alaska and Massachusetts would track its flight path. A ground-based radar likely to be located in Alaska then would target the missile, as would a ground-launched interceptor located nearby. Traveling at a speed of up to 25,000 mph, the interceptor would home in on the missile and fire small rockets to destroy it.

U.S. officials acknowledged that yesterday's announcement might cause Russian fears that the United States is violating its promise, enshrined in the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, not to build a defensive shield that would upset the nuclear balance between the two countries.

Administration officials said President Clinton wrote to Russian President Boris Yeltsin to notify him in advance of Cohen's remarks. The letter assured Yeltsin the announcement does not represent a commitment to deploy any anti-missile system and does not represent a change in the U.S. commitment to the ABM treaty, a senior official said.

Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright will explain the decision to the Russian leadership when she visits Moscow next week, an administration official said. She is planning to say that the world has changed since the ABM treaty was signed and that U.S. interests now require an interpretation that would be "a little less doctrinaire," the official said.

Cohen said yesterday that the system the Pentagon envisions may call for moving the single defensive monitoring site approved under the ABM treaty from North Dakota to Alaska or building more than one radar and interceptor site. If the Russians were unable to agree to that, he added, "then we simply have the option of our national interest indicating we would simply pull out of the treaty."

Cohen pointed out that the U.S. system would not be able to shoot down the thousands of warheads that Russia could launch against the United States. "The limited [national missile defense] capability we are developing is focused primarily on countering rogue nation threats and will not be capable of countering Russia's nuclear deterrent," he said.

The need for a national anti-missile system has been one of the main defense issues dividing Clinton from conservative Republicans, for whom it is a top priority.

"I am encouraged by and hope today's announcement really signals a change in administration policy," Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a leading proponent of missile defense, said in a statement. "But I remain skeptical given the president's continuing lack of a firm commitment to proceed with deployment."

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), another leading advocate, welcomed the announcement. "I applaud them, I'm delighted," he said. "I think reality finally caught up with them."

In making its case yesterday, Cohen and others cited recent developments in North Korea missile technology, especially its August launch of a medium-range Taepo-dong missile. The missile included a third-phase booster, which fizzled in space but surprised U.S. intelligence agencies because it indicated that North Korea was closer to producing a long-range intercontinental missile than had been believed.

In July, a congressionally mandated panel chaired by former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld concluded that the threat of missile attack on the United States was "broader, more mature and evolving more rapidly than has been reported in estimates and reports by the intelligence community."

"The Taepo-dong I test was another strong indicator that the United States will, in fact, face a rogue nation missile threat to our homeland, against which we will have to defend the American people," Cohen said.

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