RPT-Ex-Pentagon arms tester belittles US missile defense

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By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - The former top U.S. weapons tester told Congress on Wednesday the Pentagon was wasting what may add up to hundreds of billions of dollars to build what he described as a largely useless anti-ballistic missile shield.

"Missile defense is the most difficult development the Pentagon has ever attempted," said Philip Coyle, who served from 1994 to 2001 as an assistant secretary of defense and the head of Pentagon arms testing.

The threat being used to justify the large sums being spent has been exaggerated, he said, "and if it were real the proposed missile defense systems couldn't deal with it anyway."

Coyle and other prominent critics testified the Pentagon and contractors such as Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) had made scant progress toward being able to defeat ballistic missiles despite federal outlays of perhaps $150 billion since then-President Ronald Reagan made his famous "Star Wars" speech in 1983.

Intercept tests during the past five years have been "simpler and less realistic" than tests in the previous five years, Coyle said in remarks prepared for a House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee.

Decoys and countermeasures remained the "Achilles Heel" of missile defense, he said.

For example, he derided a multibillion-dollar Boeing-led effort to put a chemical laser aboard a modified 747 jumbo jet to destroy missiles near their launch site. The so-called Airborne Laser would add to missile defenses based on land, at sea and sensors in space, if its funding continues.