European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 29, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                $7.7 billion in Star wars projects scuttled Brilliant pebbles is one of the Star wars projects still being vigorously pursued by the Pentagon. The new Yort Tima by Robert Burns the associated press in its guest for a space based defense against nuclear attack the . Government invested at least $7.7 billion in Star wars projects that never got off the ground. Of the government s $29 billion investment so far in the strategic defense initiative fully a Quarter went to projects later cast aside As unneeded unworkable or unaffordable an associated press review found. The collapse of those efforts has not slowed ski spending. This year the program will consume $4,15 billion making it the biggest item in the defense budget even though the threat that led to ski s creation a soviet nuclear attack a has receded. Ski started in 1984 with a charge to Quot explore and demonstrate Quot key technologies in ballistic missile defense a with an emphasis on space based antimissile weapons it is the costliest military research program in american history but its investment record has largely escaped detailed Public scrutiny. The defense department which administers ski through a civilian run Agency called the strategic defense initiative organization has never Given a comprehensive accounting of Federal spending on ski projects it killed or mothballed. The $7,7 billion estimate is derived from an a review of annual reports to Congress by government agencies congressional testimony government audits and More than two dozen interviews with contractors and government officials. Congress has shown Little interest in where the ski Money has gone until recently. Now committees in the House and the Senate a As Well As the general accounting office the investigative Arm of Congress a Are conducting in depth investigations of ski s record. Rep. John Conyers a Mich chairman of the House government operations committee has said ski pulled a Quot reverse Rumpelstiltskin a it has spun Gold into  some of the $7.7 billion went to a surveillance satellite to detect and track hostile missiles. Cost $1 billion. Status dead. A a ground based laser to Zap missiles in flight by bouncing laser beams off relay and Quot fighting Quot mirrors stationed in space. Cost $1.2 billion or More. Status mothballed. A a nuclear bomb pumped a Ray laser and other Quot nuclear directed Energy Quot weapons in space. Cost More than $1.8 billion. Status dead a a pop up Quot probe Quot to help interceptors distinguish warheads from decoys hurtling through space. Cost at least $500 million. Status to be mothballed in 1993. As recently As last year the Pentagon called the probe Quot essential Quot to ski. A a guided rocket to intercept hostile missiles inside or outside the atmosphere. Cost $623 million status mothballed. No Money budgeted for it after 1992. At least $800 million More was spent on supporting technologies for space and ground based laser weapons that no longer Are on a path toward development on paper studies of the architecture of beam weapons within the Overall Quot Star wars Quot Constellation and Lor management support. Winnowing out unworkable ideas is Normal in a scientific research program but in ski most of the ill fated projects were stopped or stalled not on the basis of scientific judgment but because of shifting priorities among government managers and politicians. Maxwell Hunter a retired aerospace Engineer and a Pioneer in ballistic missile defense said ski suffers from a syndrome he Calls the Quot rolling threat Quot a being held to performance goals that Are placed further and further out of reach thus Locking the program into a research phase that produces Only paper results. Ski is still in great flux and More of its research programs May yet fall to the Wayside As  spending priorities change in the aftermath of the cold War the surviving projects in ski include a ground based missile interceptor called the Obi a ground based radar to help guide the interceptor to its target space based interceptors called Brilliant pebbles tracking and surveillance satellites called Brilliant eyes and a ground command Center to coordinate the Battle the paper Trail of ski is Complex and convoluted some projects that began under one sponsor were shifted to another. Others were renamed or reconfigured in some cases More than once some work was classified secret. Money sometimes came not through the ski office but the Energy department the armed services or the defense nuclear Agency. Ski is pressing ahead with less exotic plans for an antimissile system but it has All but abandoned the goal proclaimed by president Reagan in 1983 of seeking a defensive shield to Render nuclear weapons Quot impotent and  the goal May have been unreachable an a but the initial Star wars enthusiasm triggered a flood of Federal spending on what ski managers called Quot High risk High return Quot projects. Thousands of private defense contractors were the main economic beneficiaries along with government owned weapons laboratories in los Alamos n.m., and Livermore Calif. The Pentagon says the research could be revived if the nation again Felt threatened by nuclear missile attack critics say the Money was mostly wasted Quot when i think of the Money thrown Down the Drain and other abuses that Are still secret because they re classified i shudder at How badly the taxpayers and our National Security have been  stated of dec Saucier who claims he was harassed in his Job As an army ski scientist after he levelled allegations of widespread ski waste fraud and abuse. In defense of ski s spending record Harry Ennis a retired army colonel closely involved in antimissile work in the Early 1980s, said that although Quot there was a lot of duplication Quot ski managers should not be faulted. The Money was spent on a wide Range of once promising technologies Many of which originated in the 1970s and were accelerated under Reagan some were cancelled just As experiments wore getting under Way to demonstrate whether the technology would work an example is the Sta Tab Experiment to show that a High Energy laser beam in space could be pointed at a hostile missile Long enough to destroy it m right. Sta Tab was cancelled in 1991 before the Experiment was carried out Cost to the government $600 million Quot they never got the Benefit of the Sla lab work said Klein Spencer of the general accounting office. The costs went far beyond what the ski organization s ree Odic show for the individual weapons concepts Money was poured into supporting technologies for example ski spent $111 million Over six years on the sp-100 nuclear reactor which in 1987 it said was the Quot Cornerstone Quot of its efforts to develop a Power source for antimissile weapons designed for use in space. In addition the Energy department has spent $255 million on the uncompleted sp-100 reactor. This year ski dropped out of the project reason too costly and no longer needed. Steven Aftergood senior research analyst at the federation of american scientists said ski officials dragged the government deep into the sp-100 project in the 1980s Quot to satisfy Mission requirements that turned out to be  ski recently announced it cancelled several other Power projects that had Cost at least $117 million. In the most recent setback ski disclosed in Early May that it was drastically scaling Back efforts to develop a Quot Neutral particle beam Quot weapon that would fire beams of subatomic particles from a Battle station in space. Ski has spent $732 million on the Neutral particle beam research since 1985, according to its reports to Congress plus tens of millions More on supporting technologies. Its demise leaves Only the space based chemical laser As a viable Quot directed Energy Quot weapon candidate and even it a costing $872 million so far a is in danger. Henry Cooper he director of ski told Congress this month that if All the Pentagon s efforts in lasers and other directed Energy weapons were halted More than $10 billion of Federal government investment Over two decades would be lost. This appears to be just what we Are poised to do Quot Cooper said. A readers action line editor s note the action line will not appear today because of a delay in receiving responses to a number of queries. The draw Down cutbacks in staff and other factors have combined to produce the shortage according to military officials. The action line will resume As soon As answers Are received by the stars and stripes Page 16 a the stars and stripes Friday May 29, 1992