Washington, D.C. . . .Thirty-one former government officials today urged the Bush Administration to delay the national missile defense deployment scheduled for later this year.

The release comes the day that the Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to release the results of its mark-up on the annual Defense Authorization bill. While the Committee is likely to approve the Administration’s $10.2 billion missile defense request, Senators Levin (D-MI) and Reed (D-RI) are expected to offer amendments on the Senate floor the week of May 17 to cut funds and require additional testing.

These officials -- who worked for Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton -- argued that the missile defense system planned for rollout by September "will provide no real defense" and labeled it a "sham."

The officials worked at the Pentagon, Department of State, National Security Council, Office of Management and Budget, and Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

The letter accused the Administration of "rushing a program into the field that is largely untested and missing major components."

"This is like rolling out a new automobile that is missing tires, steering wheel and brakes and hasn't been tested on the open road," said Philip E. Coyle, a former chief of operational test and evaluation at the Pentagon. "No sound business would launch a product missing major components and without testing to see if it could work without those components."

The letter pointed to problems with the booster rocket, the ground-based X-band radar, the sea-based X-band radar and the satellite tracking system.

It argued: "Without adequate systems testing, the ground-based missile defense program lacks a sound scientific and technical basis for cost-effective development, let alone deployment."

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Complete text of letter below:

May 7, 2004

Dear Mr. President,

The initial deployment of a ground-based strategic missile defense system later this year is rushing a program into the field that is largely untested and missing major components. This rapidly approaching deadline is forcing the Missile Defense Agency to skip or delay the very tests that are needed to determine whether the system can be operationally effective when called upon.

The interceptors being put into the ground in Alaska and California are still in the early phases of their developmental test programs. Accordingly, all the tests to date have occurred in highly scripted, unrealistic test environments. The interceptors have not yet demonstrated a capacity to hit a target under real world conditions.

In part because there has been such pressure to get interceptors into the ground before October 2004, the flight test program schedule has slipped again and again. Additionally, four of the six intercept tests originally planned to be held by October 2004 have been cancelled since your deployment announcement in December 2002.

But even with a more rigorous testing program of the interceptor, the initial deployment will not be just bare-bones: it will be incomplete: The booster rocket needed for the ground-based missile defense program has suffered many development problems. A ground-based X-band radar, which the Missile Defense Agency has stated is essential to the system, is no longer under development. The sea-based X-band radar, which is needed to enhance satellite tracking, is not scheduled to be fielded until 2005 at the earliest and, at any rate, is intended mainly for testing purposes. An infrared satellite system capable of tracking incoming missiles and helping to guide the interceptor will not be in place for many years.

In fact, this system will provide no real defense. Without adequate systems testing the ground-based missile defense program lacks a sound scientific and technical basis for cost-effective development, let alone deployment. Do not allow the American public to be deceived. The "initial defensive capability" being advertised by the Missile Defense Agency is a sham. We strongly urge that you drop the 2004 deployment, and commit instead to a sensible research and development schedule.

Sincerely,

Gordon Adams, Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Director, Security Policy Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University

George Bunn, fomer US Ambassador to the Geneva Disarmament Conference, now Consulting Professor at Stanford Institute for International Studies

Anne Cahn, former DOD and ACDA official, Scholar-in-Residence at American University

Joseph Cirincione, Director for Non-Proliferation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Hon. Philip E. Coyle, III, Senior Advisor, Center for Defense Information, and former Assistant Secretary of Defense and Director of Operational Test & Evaluation at the Pentagon

Jonathan Dean, adviser on Global Security issues to Union of Concerned Scientists, former State Department arms control negotiator

Paul Doty, Harvard University*

Ambassador Ralph Earle II, former deputy director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

Steve Fetter, Professor, School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland, College Park

Ambassador Peter Galbraith, fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non- Proliferation and former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia and Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College

Nancy Gallagher, Former – Executive Director, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Task Force; Current – Research Director, Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland

Ambassador James E. Goodby, former chief US negotiator for cooperative threat reduction

Ambassador Robert Grey, Jr., Director, Bipartisan Security Group

Morton H. Halperin, former Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State (1998-2001) and held senior positions at the Department of Defense and the National Security Council in the Johnson, Clinton, and Nixon administrations

John D. Holum, former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security and former Director, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

Lawrence J. Korb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration

Terri S. Lodge, Coordinator, Arms Control Advocacy Collaborative, former State Department official and Senior Congressional Advisor for Arms Control and International Security, 1991-2002.

Katherine Magraw, Former Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for International Security Policy

Jack Mendelsohn, former State Department official and member US SALT I and START II Delegation. Adjunct Professor, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

John Newhouse, Center for Defense Information Senior Fellow, and former assistant director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency with responsibility for East-West matters, including Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

George Rathjens, professor emeritus, MIT; formerly chief scientist and deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, Department of Defense; and formerly director of the Weapons Systems Evaluation Division of the Institute Analyses.

Stanley Resor, Secretary of the Army in the Johnson and Nixon Administrations and former Chairman of the Arms Control Association John B. Rhinelander, former Legal Adviser, US SALT I delegation

Jack Ruina; Prof. Emeritus of Elelectrical Engineering , MIT; former director of the Defense Advanced Research Agency

Sarah Sewall former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and Harvard University

Ivo Spalatin, Former Director, Office of Congressional Affairs, Senior Policy Advisor and Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

A. Gregory Thielmann, former director of the Strategic, Proliferation, and Military Affairs office in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Jane Wales, former Associate Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, former Senior Director of the National Security Council

Cindy Williams, Assistant Director for National Security, Congressional Budget Office (1994-1997); currently Principal Research Scientist, Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology*

Winslow Wheeler, Visiting Senior Fellow, Center for Defense Information, former national security adviser to four US Senators and staff co-author of 1983 law establishing DoD's office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation"

Herbert York, co-founder of Pentagon's DARPA, first, Director, Operational Test & Evaluation at the Pentagon, former member and vice chair of the President's Science Advisory Committee in Eisenhower, Kennedy and LBJ administrations

* Affiliations for identification only