[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13621-13622]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                            MISSILE DEFENSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON. Mr. Speaker, this past weekend we had one in a series of 
tests of our national missile defense program, which is currently under 
development, and supported both by the White House and by overwhelming 
support in both the House and the Senate. Unfortunately, this test was 
not a success, and there are those who are using this test to criticize 
the overall program and to say that technologically we are not prepared 
to move forward with missile defense.
  I want to take a few moments to clarify what did happen and to 
clarify for the record what occurred in that test, and am offering to 
Members this week to have a full briefing, both classified and 
unclassified, on the details of the test that occurred this past 
weekend.
  First of all, Mr. Speaker, the hit-to-kill technology that is 
fundamental to missile defense was not tested. It was not tested 
because we could not get the separation stage away from the main 
rocket.
  Now, that is not new technology. That is not missile defense 
technology. In fact, Wernher von Braun and other scientists solved this 
problem 40 years ago. It is a technology necessary to launch every 
communications satellite into outer space. It is a technology utilized 
for every space mission that we get involved with. It is not a 
technology specific to missile defense. However, it failed. No one 
expected it to fail, just as when we launch communications satellites, 
we do not expect the separation technology to fail to allow that 
communications satellite to be put into an orbit.
  Unfortunately, there are those who are misinformed; and there are 
those who are informed but want to mischaracterize what occurred as to 
say that this test was an indication that we are not ready to move 
forward with missile defense. Nothing could be further from the truth.
  In fact, Mr. Speaker, I have come out and strongly criticized the 
corporation who was responsible for the separation stage technology and 
have put them on notice that if we do not solve this quality-control 
issue, there will be legislation to punitively punish them for other 
failures that may occur in the future.
  But make no mistake about it, this test was not a failure of missile 
defense capability. We never got to that stage. The kill vehicle never 
had the opportunity to go after the target. It never had the 
opportunity to employ the sensors that are needed in missile defense to 
kill the incoming missile on its way into an American city.
  We will do a full analysis and the Ballistic Missile Defense 
Organization and the Department of Defense will provide the full 
reports to us. But this week I will arrange, as the chairman of the 
Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Research and Development, 
for any colleague in this Chamber that wants, a full briefing on the 
test, exactly what occurred and why the test failed.
  But, again, I would repeat, it was not a failure of missile defense, 
any more than a rocket trying to launch a satellite into space and 
failing would cause us to stop all future communication satellite 
launches. It is simply a problem that we need to get corrected, and we 
will get corrected.

[[Page 13622]]

  As Jack Gantzler, our Deputy Secretary of Defense, and General 
Kadish, our three-star general in charge of missile defense, stated in 
Congressional hearings 2 and 3 weeks ago, they are totally confident in 
our technology; and we will move forward. But there are those who want 
to distort the facts. The Union of Unconcerned Scientists is one of 
them. Those members of the Flat Earth Society that would like to 
mischaracterize what occurred are not going to be allowed to get away 
with that, and I would encourage our colleagues to make sure they avail 
themselves of all the factual information surrounding that test.

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