The US General Accounting Office (GAO) and a US Department of Defense study group believe that the National Missile Defense project should be restructured to cut the high level of risk.
Boeing is overseeing development and possible deployment of the interceptors and radars designed to defend the USA against a ballistic missile attack. The interceptor will employ a rocket booster carrying an exoatmospheric kill vehicle.
The Pentagon's operational test and evaluation group has warned that a move to field the weapon by 2003 may be too ambitious. The GAO feels the timetable is risky "-given the Pentagon's past history with other weapons systems".
Last February, a panel of military and civilian experts concluded that execution of the current schedule was "highly unlikely", saying: "The programme would benefit from the earliest possible restructuring to contain the risk."
The GAO says a deployment decision in 2000 would yield "-high technical risk because the associated compressed schedule will permit only limited testing of the system".
Source: Flight International
