NMD a costly proposition

The United States government would have to spend up to $64 billion in the next 13 years to develop and build a National Missile Defense system, according to budget analysts within the U.S. Congress.

Constructing a system of interceptor rockets based on land or launched from ships would cost between $23 billion to $64 billion by 2015, the Congressional Budget Office said last week.

The latest estimates for a ground-based missile defense system are 13 per cent to 26 percent higher than last year’s estimate.

Just one NMD site with 100 missiles on a single ground site would cost US$23 billion to US$25 billion through 2015, and running that system would cost about US$600 million a year.

The U.S. defense department is also investigating an even more costly ship-based missile system of space-based lasers that would shoot down missiles.

The NMD would destroy incoming missiles from enemy countries with nuclear capability, such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq. Erecting missile defenses would protect the U.S. from countries or groups that may use long-range missiles to engage in “nuclear blackmail,” U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week.