Missiles

China is unlikely to have enhanced its intercontinental ballistic missile program, even marginally, from U.S. technology transfers, a top Pentagon official said Thursday in Senate testimony that appeared to contradict an earlier Pentagon assessment. "I do not believe that there has been any improvement to Chinese ICBM capability," Franklin Miller, principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense, told the Senate Commerce Committee. He did not elaborate. Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.

Outraged by a North Korean missile test that apparently sent a warhead flying over Japan and into the Pacific, Tokyo announced Tuesday that it is freezing food and energy aid to the Communist regime and withdrawing its offer for talks aimed at normalizing relations between the two countries. Meanwhile, a North Korean delegation in New York failed to show up for talks scheduled with U.S.

Long gone are the soldiers who kept watch at an Army facility in the Santa Monica Mountains, searching the skies for Soviet planes that might soar in from the Pacific to bomb Los Angeles. Their weather-battered guard shack off a gravelly road in the steep hills behind Encino now has rusted window frames and a hole in one wall. Only the radar tower still stands tall.

Long gone are the soldiers who kept guard at this former Army facility, searching the skies for Soviet planes that might soar in from the Pacific to bomb the city. Their weather-battered guard shack off a gravelly road in the steep hills behind Encino now has rusted window frames and a hole in one wall. But the radar tower still stands tall, overlooking the San Fernando Valley to the north and the central city to the southeast.

Senate Republicans failed by a single vote Wednesday in an attempt to require deployment of a national missile defense system "as soon as technologically feasible." The narrow victory for the Clinton administration came despite GOP warnings that instability in Russia and missile tests by North Korea are posing new security risks. The 59-41 vote was one short of the 60 needed to end a Democratic filibuster and force a final vote on the measure. It was identical to a May 13 roll call vote.

North Korea on Friday rejected assertions that it test-fired a ballistic missile this week, accusing the U.S. and Japan of making a "fuss" over the launch of a scientific satellite. According to Japanese defense officials, North Korea test-fired a two-stage ballistic missile Monday that sailed over northern Japan and fell into the Pacific Ocean. The first stage landed in the Sea of Japan. U.S. officials said it showed a worrisome increase in North Korea's missile capability.

The Pentagon's newest anti-missile weapon failed its fifth consecutive flight test Tuesday, deepening doubts about it and raising broader questions about how quickly the Pentagon can deploy a larger--and more controversial--system to shield the entire nation from missile attack.

Seizing an issue they consider part national security threat and part political scandal, Republicans on Wednesday rammed measures through the House that would end the export of sensitive missile and satellite technology to China.

The Indian subcontinent has lived under an umbrella of nuclear deterrence for years, yet the threat of a runaway arms race has always lurked near as India and Pakistan have accumulated nuclear material and developed deadly ways to deliver it. India has one of the world's most ambitious missile programs, and far outpaces smaller Pakistan in almost every military category.

By a veto-proof margin of 90 to 4, the Senate approved legislation Friday to impose new sanctions on Russian businesses and other organizations selling sensitive missile technology to Iran. Senate passage of the sanctions, which already have been endorsed by the House, came despite a warning from the Clinton administration that the bill could torpedo diplomatic efforts to stop the missile trade--just as they are beginning to pay off.