US general "very confident" on missile defense

Reuters | June 24 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Air Force general responsible for building a U.S. anti-ballistic missile shield on Friday voiced high confidence it could shoot down any U.S.-bound missile from North Korea, despite critics' doubts.

"From what I've seen from our testing from the last several years ... and what I know about the system and its capabilities, I'm very confident," Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering told reporters after a speech to a seminar.

Obering, head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, declined to confirm reports that ground-based U.S. interceptor missiles had been put on alert for a possible effort to shoot down what U.S. officials say could be Pyongyang's first long-range missile firing in eight years.

But he said the array of interceptor missiles, satellites, radar stations and data relays had been moved from a test status to "operational" configuration many times since the end of 2004, when the initial elements were deployed.

A total of 11 interceptors are now in silos as part of a rudimentary, multibillion-dollar shield -- nine at Fort Greely, Alaska, and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The Pentagon has shot down mock warheads in five of 10 highly scripted intercept tests of the ground-based system. The United States has spent more than $92 billion on missile defense since then-President Ronald Reagan launched what critics called his "Star Wars" initiative in 1984.

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Obering's stated confidence contrasted with views of the Pentagon's own top weapons evaluator as well as those of many outside experts.

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