US conducts successful missile shield test

washington: whether or not there was a convergence of indian and pakistani viewpoints in new delhi, a prototype interceptor met a mock warhead 144 miles over the pacific in the first significant success scored by america's controversial missile defence programme. after two failures in previous tests and an intense debate about the cost and need for the so-called son of star wars programme, saturday's success has given the bush administration a boost en route to its ambitious idea of erecting a defensive shield against incoming nuclear warheads.there were few immediate details about the results of the $100 million test, but pentagon officials indicated that a projectile fired from the marshall islands collided with a mock warhead launched from vandenberg air force base in california, 4,800 miles away, somewhere over the pacific. the direct hit, a sort of "bullet hitting a bullet" scenario, occurred when the two objects were travelling at 4.5 miles per second. "we believe we had a successful test, in all aspects, right now," lt. gen. ronald t kadish, director of the ballistic missile defence organisation, said. saturday's test was similar to last july's failed effort in which a $25 million, 130-pound "kill vehicle" did not separate from the booster rocket that had carried it skyward. a previous test in january 2000 also failed. while the parameters of the latest test are still to be validated, the success gives the bush administration the voice and momentum to press for erecting a prototype missile shield in the face of opposition and skepticism from much of the world. the bush plan calls for $8 billion in funding for missile defence in the year 2002, a 57 per cent increase. the pentagon says it intends to conduct as many as 17 flight tests involving ground- and sea-launched missiles over the coming 18 months in its search for the right technology. despite saturday's success, experts acknowledge that such an experiment involving just one dummy warhead and one decoy falls far short of simulating a real attack. a real attack could involve multiple warheads and decoys. in that sense, this is still a fairly rudimentary advance in the move towards a missile shield in terms of science and technology. but geo-strategic and political implications of the success, both within and outside the united states, are enormous. bush is soon scheduled to meet russian president vladimir putin and european leaders who are opposed to the idea of missile defence. he is now in a position to counter one part of their argument with the response "it works." there is also some marginal vindication in the test's success for india's stand. by supporting bush's missile defence plans, new delhi had acknowledged the changing security paradigm based on defensive measures, particularly if it resulted in the downsizing of thousands of offensive nuclear weapons in the american and russian arsenals.