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Missile-shield Test Site is Approved NewsMax.com WiresWASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has given the go-ahead for construction to begin in the next few weeks on a missile-defense test site in Alaska. "The site preparation will be limited to clearing and grading of the site and installing preliminary utilities and road structures," a spokeswoman for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization said in an interview with The Washington Times. A $9 million contract for clearing trees and building roads and utilities in central Alaska was awarded Friday and land clearing will begin "within a week or so," she said. The construction was judged legal under the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty by Pentagon lawyers in charge of treaty-compliance decisions, the spokeswoman said. The United States currently has no defenses against long-range ballistic missiles. Russia is opposed to scrapping the ABM Treaty. The Bush administration has said it will seek changes in the pact, or withdraw from it, in order to be allowed to build effective missile defenses. The construction decision was made public Wednesday - the day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld returned from talks in Moscow with Russian officials on missile defenses and strategic arms cuts, The Times said. The official construction announcement for the testing facility at the Army's Fort Greely, Alaska, base was published in the Federal Register. The notice stated that construction on a portion of the 661,000-acre military base would begin without a final Pentagon decision on the exact type of missile-defense system that will be built. Also, congressional appropriations for final construction of the system have not been approved, the notice said. "Fort Greely is a potential deployment location in Alaska for ground-based interceptor silos, battle management command and control facilities, and other support facilities for the Ground Based Midcourse Element, formerly called the National Missile Defense system," the notice said. It said that "in the event of a missile attack on the United States, the test bed at Fort Greely could potentially be used for ballistic missile defense." However, there are no plans at present to test-fire an interceptor from the site, it stated. Fort Greely, a former Army base, is located in central Alaska about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
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