The Missile Defense Agency, in an overview of its budget request, said it wants to "initiate acquisition" of the interceptors starting in the next federal fiscal year, 2005, which starts Oct. 1.

The multi-billion dollar acquisition and installation process would continue in the following two fiscal years, according to the document.

After President Clinton in September 2000 cancelled plans for a 100-interceptor base, the military proceeded with plans to install just six interceptors at Fort Greely. Then, in December 2002, President Bush said he wanted a basic national missile defense system working by the fall of 2004 and called for 10 more interceptors at the fort.

If Congress approves Bush's spending plan for next fiscal year, another 10 interceptors will be on their way, for a total of 26 by sometime late in the decade.

The military wants to spend $53 billion in the next five years on missile defense of all types. Bush's fiscal 2005 plan, released today, would spend $9.17 billion, a $1.5 billion increase from the current year.

More than a third of that increase would go to the system being installed at Fort Greely, known as the ground-based, midcourse segment because the interceptors are designed to hit enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles while they are in space, the middle part of their trajectory. The 2005 midcourse budget would rise to $4.41 billion from $3.74 billion under the president's plan.

"By fielding additional, weapons, sensors and (command and battle management) tools, we will provide greater protection for the U.S. homeland, as well as deployed forces, allies and friends," the budget summary states.

Critics of the midcourse segment say it does little, if any, of that. They argue that terrorists or rogue nations could deliver a nuclear, biological or chemical weapon in much simpler ways than intercontinental missiles, so spending billions on defense from such missiles is a wasteful strategic blunder.

Many also question whether the midcourse segment will work. Some scientists say sensors on the interceptors can't distinguish warheads from decoys in the weightless, airless environment. Multiple warheads on an incoming missile could also overwhelm any defensive system, they say.

The Missile Defense Agency has maintained that it can overcome such challenges. It has had several successful interceptor tests and it recently issued a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a way to counter multiple warheads.

The agency plans to have at least a few interceptors ready to fire from Fort Greely by this fall--or earlier.

"Our planning date is fall 2004, but we will recommend to the Secretary of Defense that he place the ballistic missile defense system on alert as soon as there is a capability to defend against a single intercontinental ballistic missile," the budget summary states.

Thomas Christie, the Pentagon's top testing oversight official, said that capability will be mostly theoretical.

While it would be "prudent" to try to use the system if the U.S. were attacked, Christie said in his annual report, "it is important to understand that assessments of these capabilities are based primarily on modeling and simulation, developmental testing of components and subsystems, and analyses--not end-to-end operational testing."

"At this point in time, it is not clear what mission capability will be demonstrated prior to (initial defensive operations)," he said.

The agency plans two more intercept tests in the midcourse segment before September of this year, Christie said. "The small number of tests would limit confidence" in the segment, he said.

The testing program also suffers from lack of a reliable booster rocket and useful radar, he said.

Christie noted, though, that the MDA is working on both a new type of booster and a new mobile radar based at Adak in the Aleutian Islands.

The MDA announced a successful test of the new Orbital Sciences booster last month--just days after Christies released his annual report. The sea-based, X-band radar is scheduled to arrive at Adak in late 2005.

But Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, said Christie's report shows that President Bush, "in a rush to win an ideological victory," is pushing an unproven system and draining money from other priorities.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has backed the president's plan and last year even added about $160 million for interceptors to the fiscal 2004 missile defense budget.

Rick Lehner, Missile Defense Agency spokesman, said Friday the extra money is being spent on interceptors and security at Fort Greely, as well as communication equipment at the Cobra Dane radar on Shemya Island in the Aleutians. The radar, which points toward Russia, is supposed to help detect any incoming missiles.

In 2002, at the same time the military announced it would boost Fort Greely's interceptor count to 16, it said it would place four interceptors at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. That will bring the total nationwide to 20.

In budget documents released today, the military said it wants to keep adding interceptors--not only the 10 more at Fort Greely but also 10 more at "a potential third site." Some of the fiscal 2005 money would go to "long lead activity" for that third site.

The Alaska National Guard activated a battalion to operate the Fort Greely site on Jan. 22. The battalion, attached to the Colorado-based 100th Missile Defense Brigade, will eventually have 110 soldiers.

Fort Greely has room for about 40 interceptors. For safety reasons, none will be used in tests, Christie noted.

Neither will any interceptors rise from Kodiak Island. Missile defense officials decided last year that the state-owned launch site on Kodiak would only be used to send up mock targets.

Three solid fuel motors for the first of those tests arrived in Kodiak Wednesday night on a military transport from Huntsville, Ala. The motors will power a rocket to be fired in March or early April, though no interceptor will seek to destroy the target. Rather, the target will help the military test command and control functions at sites across the country, Lehner told the Kodiak Daily Mirror.

Roads between Kodiak's airport and the Kodiak Launch Complex 25 miles to the south were closed for up to 3 hours early Thursday morning during the fuel transport, the Mirror reported.

Two other target launches from Kodiak are tentatively scheduled for this year, according to a state official quoted by the Mirror. Lehner told the Mirror an interceptor from California or Kwajalein Atoll in the western Pacific will try to shoot down at least one of those targets in mid- to late summer.

Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at sbishop@newsminer.com or (202) 662-8721.