http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-weighs-antiterror-missile-plan/2006/0 8/28/1156617274862.html US weighs anti-terror missile plan THE Pentagon is considering a plan to replace the nuclear warheads on some intercontinental ballistic missiles with conventional weapons for pre-emptive strikes against terrorists, according to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Mr Rumsfeld said taking the nuclear warhead off the missiles would make them less lethal and therefore a more conceivable option for accurately and quickly targeting terrorists groups that pose a lethal threat. "We don't know how the world is going to evolve but we do know that there are terrorist networks in the world and they are already using missiles. We just saw what Hezbollah did, firing some 4000 missiles into Israel," Mr Rumsfeld said after meeting Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov. Mr Rumsfeld said he hoped Russia would consider the idea too, but Mr Ivanov said there may be different solutions for pre-emptive strikes. The US military will test its missile defence system this Thursday, the fullest demonstration since a pair of tests grounded the program 18 months ago. Military officials sought to lower expectations, though. Although a target missile will be fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska, and an interceptor rocket topped with a "kill vehicle" will launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, both military and industry officials say they are not actually trying to shoot down the missile. "We are not going to try to hit the target," said Scott Fancher, head of Boeing Corp's ground-based missile defence program. "It is not a primary or secondary test objective to hit the target." After a tour of the missile interceptor silos, Mr Rumsfeld said that although he wanted to see a "full end-to-end test," he was patient - and rejected suggestions that the system should try to hit the target this time. Air Force Lieutenant-General Henry Obering, director of the Missile Defence Agency, said that although it was not one of the goals of the test, it was possible that the kill vehicle would take out the missile. But he said the military was focused on making sure a redesigned kill vehicle was able to spot the target missile, distinguish between its booster stage and warhead, and communicate with the control centres on the ground. "This is about as good as it gets in terms of a system test," General Obering said. The general said previously that he believed the missile defence system could shoot down a long-range North Korean missile aimed at the United States. "We can protect LA, we can protect the entire United States, from both California and Alaska, from a North Korea threat," he said. Asked if he shared General Obering's confidence, Mr Rumsfeld said: "I . want to see it happen." The military is not going to try and knock out a target missile until December, a test General Obering called the "final stage". Critics have long raised doubts about the costly and ambitious system. Although the interceptors have hit dummy missiles in five-out-of-10 tests, some independents experts have suggested that the conditions were too controlled and the targets not realistic enough.
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