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Fired Engineer Says TRW Faked Anti-Missile Test Results
New York (AFP) March 7, 2000 - A former employee of a leading US defense contractor has accused the company of faking tests and evaluations of a key component of a missile defense system the White House is considering for deployment, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Nira Schwartz, who worked on TRW's anti-missile team in 1995 and 1996, told the paper the company was trying to produce an interceptor able to distinguish between incoming warheads and decoys. The interceptor was failing test after test, but Schwartz said her superiors had insisted that the technology performed adequately and had rejected her appeals to inform TRW's partners and the federal government of the failures, The Times reported. TRW fired her in February 1996, days after she insisted that her superiors be forthright about the failures, according to the daily. Schwartz, who worked at TRW's facility in Redondo Beach, California, is suing the company, arguing that it must return about half a billion dollars to the US government, part of which she could be awarded as compensation if the suit is successful. TRW has denied all charges, and the Justice Department has refused to join Schwartz suit. "The Justice Department studied this very carefully, it looked at the charges and decided not to become a party to the suit," said Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon, who said the Defense Department agreed with the Justice Department decision. Bacon brushed aside the charges as relating to an interceptor that ultimately was rejected by the Pentagon in 1998 in favor of a device produced by a rival defense contractor, Raytheon. "I do not believe we have overstated the results of this program," he said. The TRW design has been kept as the backup to the Raytheon interceptor, which has experienced problems in recent tests, according to the Times. US President Bill Clinton is to decide this summer whether to deploy a nationwide anti-missile defense system designed to protect the United States from limited ballistic missile attack by "rogue states," such as North Korea, Iraq and Iran. The program is estimated to cost some 27 billion dollars, according to the report. In making this decision, the president will take into consideration the project's feasibility, costs and its implications for arms control, US officials have said. Copyright 1999 AFP. All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by AFP and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. CommunityEmail This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Space
Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
Calcutta, India (SPX) Dec 28, 2005The successful launch Thursday of India's heaviest satellite from spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana may have boosted the country's space research efforts to yet another level, but it has also lifted the spirits of at least three Direct-To-Home televisions broadcasters, one of which has been waiting for years to launch its services in India. |
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