Ready or Not, Missile Defense

It's the first weapon designed to destroy an enemy nuclear warhead in space from the sheer force of a pinpoint collision at 15,000 mph. And it is proving explosive in another way too, helping boost the business of Boeing Co., Raytheon Co. and others with operations in the Southland.

"All the defense companies in Southern California have their fingers in the missile-defense pie," said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

The Alaskan installation marked the first step in the Bush administration's ambitious plan to implement a missile-defense shield with systems on land, on sea and in the air. By next year, 20 interceptors are set to be in place, including four at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County.

The missile interceptors are also the first weapons that derive from President Reagan's "Star Wars" defense project. In 1983, Reagan directed the Pentagon to develop an antimissile shield using futuristic, high-tech weaponry, including laser beams and nuclear-powered reactors in space. The current system is more modest than what Reagan envisioned, yet it remains technologically complex, costly -- and controversial.

The interceptors mark "the end of an era where we have not been able to defend our country against long-range ballistic missile attacks," said Maj. Gen. John W. Holly, director of the ground-based element of the program.

Much of the design work on the interceptor was performed in California.

Chicago-based Boeing, the lead contractor on the interceptor program since 1998, has 500 engineers working on the project in Anaheim, plus 700 more toiling on other missile-defense work in Palmdale and Seal Beach. All told, Boeing reaps $3 billion in annual revenue from missile-defense work, accounting for about 5% of its total sales.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, spending on missile defense soared from $4.8 billion to nearly $10 billion this year. And the Bush administration wants to commit an additional $40 billion over the next four years on missile defense.

Critics, however, continue to assail the administration, saying it is deploying the interceptors prematurely, given that the missiles hit their target only five times in eight tests.