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Saturday Morning News

National Missile Defense System Proving to be Very Complex

Aired September 2, 2000 - 8:30 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In other news this morning, President Clinton yesterday said he would not authorize the deployment of a national missile defense system. Instead, he asked officials to continue with development and testing. It will be up to Mr. Clinton's successor to decide whether to deploy the national missile defense system.

If and when such a program is put in place, it would be made up of a complex series of systems designed to form a protective umbrella over the U.S.

CNN's Allard Beutel explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD REAGAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLARD BEUTEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A defense shield capable of protecting the U.S. and its allies from a nuclear missile attack from right Soviet Union, that was the heart of President Reagan's 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI. It called for deploying defensive weapons in space and on the ground to shoot down incoming Soviet missiles. That earned the project the nickname Star Wars.

More than a decade later, the national missile defense system can be considered a scaled down sequel to Star Wars. This anti-missile system isn't as expensive as SDI and wouldn't use any space-based weapons. The estimated $60 billion system will be designed to protect all 50 states from a limited missile attack from countries such as North Korea, Iraq and Iran. This is how it's supposed to work.

A combination of ground radar and satellites will detect a missile launch, track it and relay that information to a command center. A defense missile would then be launched to intercept the enemy missile while it's still in space. The defense missile carries a device called a kill vehicle into orbit. The kill vehicle tracks the enemy missile and using steering jets to maneuver. It then destroys the missile by crashing itself into the warhead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in mission command. Here's the lift off.

BEUTEL: Developing this system is proving to be difficult. It's failed two of three intercept tests, including the latest one in July. Critics say the biggest challenge will be building a kill vehicle smart enough not to get fooled by decoys such as balloons. And the national anti-missile system would violate a 1972 treaty signed with the Soviet Union. Moscow has expressed its opposition to the system and is concerned it could trigger another arms race.

The Pentagon wants to have the initial national missile defense system in place by 2005. The CIA says that date is significant because it believes North Korea could have a missile capable of reaching U.S. soil within five years.

Allard Beutel, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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