Test Failures Slow U.S. Missile Defense

Behind the heavy barbed wire at this snowy range are silos containing eight interceptors designed to shoot down incoming enemy missiles. There were supposed to be as many as 16 in place by now.

But after an embarrassing series of test failures in the ambitious, expensive and highly criticized program to build a national missile-defense shield, the U.S. military is slowing the deployment of interceptors while it conducts more testing.

Fewer interceptors than the military had hoped for have been installed at Fort Greely, an 800-acre complex at the edge of an old burned spruce forest, and at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Vandenberg has just two interceptors instead of four.

The government has spent about $100 billion on missile defense since 1983, including $7.8 billion authorized for the current fiscal year. Interceptors, however, have failed five times in 11 tests, even though some critics of the program say the tests have been practically rigged to succeed.

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