A developmental Standard Missile-3, designed to intercept short- to medium-ranged ballistic missile threats, is launched from the USS Lake Erie in November 2002. The missile intercepted its target three and a half minutes after the target missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.
Barking Sands
beats out WhiteInouye insists Kauai's missile
business will not go to New Mexico
LIHUE >> There is no chance that the testing of medium-range missile interceptor rockets will be shifted from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range on Kauai to the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, according to U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.
Inouye's spokesman Mike Yuen gave the senator's first response to an announcement two weeks ago that Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has asked the Defense Department to look into the possibility of taking the missile testing mission away from the Navy range at Barking Sands, on the western tip of Kauai.
"Due to the unique location and breadth of the Pacific Missile Range, Senator Inouye is assured that Barking Sands will remain the premier choice for longer-range missile testing well into the future," Yuen said.
For the past decade, interceptor missiles designed to knock down hostile rockets have undergone preliminary tests at White Sands.
The missiles then are sent either to Kauai or, in the case of the longer-range ballistic missile defense system, the Army missile range at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands for final testing.
White Sands is the largest military installation in the continental United States, with 4,000 square miles of empty desert available for testing.
In contrast, the Pacific Missile Range on Kauai has more than 42,000 square miles of open ocean outside commercial aircraft and shipping lanes under its control.
Largely through Inouye's efforts, almost $400 million has been spent since 1998 to upgrade the Kauai facility for future test programs. The Pacific Missile Range Facility is the largest employer on Kauai.
The Kauai range has been the testing range for the Navy's sea-launched interceptor rocket scheduled to go into service next year. It is also slated for testing of the Army's new Theater High Altitude Air Defense Missile, scheduled to begin testing late in 2005.
Just before Fourth of July weekend, Domenici announced he had placed an amendment in the Senate's 2005 defense authorization bill that would require a Pentagon study of shifting all missile testing to White Sands, near Las Cruces in southern New Mexico.
"I believe we will find that the White Sands Missile Range can provide the Pentagon with realistic flight testing and training," Domenici said.
Inouye's office said the senator believes the study will find White Sands is too small for the required testing.
"The senator is confident that such a report will conclude that available overland ranges are not large enough to accommodate medium-range and, indeed, many short-range missile tests," Yuen said.
Pacific Missile Range
www.pmrf.navy.mil
