Contractors Defend Their Programs as Cuts Loom.

Missile defense went on the offensive yesterday, as two major contractors set out to justify their costly programs in anticipation of budget cuts from the Pentagon.

"Missile defense under Bush was an experiment in acquisition," said Clark Murdock, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Now, he said, "We got a system that can be deployed, but what no one really knows is how well these systems work." Murdock said many of the missile defense programs haven't been subjected to enough "realistic testing."

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