Panel Blasts Anti-Missile Defense Program

WASHINGTON — Pentagon efforts to speed into operation anti-missile weapons inspired by former President Reagan’s “Star Wars” proposal are marred by poor planning, insufficient testing and political pressure to hasten inauguration of the systems, according to an independent panel appointed by the Defense Department.

In a 76-page report prompted by a series of flight test failures, the panel warned against a “rush to failure” in what, at a cost of nearly $4 billion a year, has become the Defense Department’s most expensive category of weapons research and development projects.

The report said decisions by officials to accept abbreviated timetables and minimal numbers of flight tests have raised the risk of more failures, delays and cost overruns.

The sharply negative critique runs counter to the strong political support for anti-missile systems, especially among Republicans in Congress, 15 years after Reagan put forward his vision of a space-based arsenal that would make the United States impenetrable to enemy missiles. Since taking control of Congress three years ago, the Republicans have succeeded in adding hundreds of millions of dollars to spending on anti-missile systems that are less ambitious than “Star Wars” but push the envelope of existing technology.

GOP defense experts on Capitol Hill were quick to dismiss the panel’s findings, saying the authors of the report failed to appreciate how the urgent need for missile defenses justifies unconventional methods and more inventive development programs than those for other weapons systems.

A spokesman for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, which coordinates the Pentagon’s various anti-missile programs, said the panel’s findings were under review. He said “some adjustments” already were planned to improve testing and evaluation methods.