Bush orders missile defence system deployed

US President George W. Bush yesterday ordered the military to begin deploying a national missile defence system with land- and sea-based interceptor rockets to be operational starting in 2004.

The decision came despite last week's failure of an anti-missile test over the Pacific Ocean.

In a statement, Bush said his goal was to "protect our citizens against what is perhaps the greatest danger of all - catastrophic harm that may result from hostile states or terrorist groups armed with weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them."

Defence officials, who asked not to be identified, said Bush was going ahead with an ambitious schedule to field 10 ground-based interceptors at Fort Greeley, Alaska, by 2004 and an additional 10 interceptors by 2005 or 2006.

The initial defence is also expected to include Aegis warship-based missiles, and another Bush administration official said ground-based interceptors could also possibly be deployed at Vandenberg Air Force base in California.

"Today I am pleased to announce that we will take another important step in countering these threats by beginning to field missile defence capabilities to protect the United States as well as our friends and allies," Bush said.

"While modest, these capabilities will add to American security and serve as a starting point for improved and expanded capabilities later as further progress is made in researching and developing missile defence technologies and in light of changes in the threat," he added.

Bush said the administration planned to begin operating "initial capabilities" in 2004 and 2005, including ground- and sea-based interceptors, additional Patriot units used to shoot down shorter-range missiles, and sensors based "on land, at sea and in space."

Erecting such a defence shield is the Pentagon's single most expensive development programme, likely to cost hundreds of billions of dollars over coming decades.

Last Wednesday, the United States suffered its third failure in eight test attempts to shoot down a long-range dummy warhead in space over the Pacific Ocean, and scientific critics of the multibillion-dollar programme have charged it is not yet mature enough to begin deployment.

But Bush and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have stressed the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technology have sharply increased the need for such a defence against attack from "rogue states" such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea, especially in the wake of devastating attacks on America using hijacked airliners on September 11, 2001.

In a first step toward setting up a missile defence umbrella, the United States in June withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty that banned such systems.

The decision to begin deploying a national missile defence, which has been criticised by Russia and China, follows North Korea's announcement this month that it will proceed with a controversial programme to develop nuclear weapons.

The Fort Greeley site would allow the US military to try and intercept any attack by long-range missiles being developed by the North.

The initial deployment would provide the United States - which has been examining several ways to shoot down medium- and long-range missiles in flight - with a limited defence against such attack.

In London, British officials said they had received a written request from the United States concerning its planned missile defense shield but had not yet responded.

Washington wants Britain to upgrade an early warning radar system at Fylingdales in northern England to enhance the program to protect both the United States and allies from attack.

Bush had wanted to put an Alaska-based "test bed" initially with five missile silos - and rudimentary operational capabilities against real attack - in place by October 2004.

The test bed was the first leg of a planned layered shield against missile attack. Other Pentagon projects involve overlapping systems that could be based at sea, in space and aboard laser-firing modified Boeing 747 aircraft.

For each of the past two fiscal years alone, Bush requested and the U.S. Congress approved $7.8 billion in research, development and testing funds.