V. The System of Systems
The geopolitics of missile defense are every bit as troublesome as the science. Even the Missile Defense Agency concedes that the shield -- originally envisioned as a defense against a rival superpower -- is no longer of any use against China or Russia. A colorful brochure produced by the agency to make the case for expansion of the shield into Europe confesses that "Russia's large strategic offensive force could overwhelm the U.S. system's limited number of deployed interceptors." Even in a direct, one-on-one engagement, the brochure concedes, "U.S. interceptors in central Europe would not be capable of intercepting Russian ICBMs launched at the United States."

Having abandoned its superpower mission, the shield has morphed under Donald Rumsfeld into an all-purpose defense for the Age of Terrorism. For the last few years, the Bush administration has promoted the shield as protection against rogue states like North Korea and Iran. But the State Department recently reached a diplomatic agreement with North Korea that would eliminate its nuclear weapons program, and Iran is years away from developing nuclear capabilities. So whose warheads will the shield protect us from? In August, during a lecture at a missile defense convention, one proponent of the system suggested the possibility of a new ballistic threat from a country that currently possesses no missiles: Venezuela.

While America focuses on hypothetical threats, other nations are taking real-world actions in direct response to missile defense. Last year, China demonstrated its offensive capacity by "painting" one of our satellites with a laser -- the outer-space equivalent of sighting it with a rifle scope -- and earlier this year, the Chinese military demonstrated its might by blowing one of its own satellites out of the sky. The shield has also soured America's relations with Russia, which views our plans to install silos for interceptors in central Europe as the equivalent of the Cuban missile crisis. In response, Vladimir Putin has threatened to aim a new generation of missiles directly at the heart of Europe, and in July he withdrew from a treaty crafted by President George H.W. Bush that limits the number of troops and tanks Russia can position close to Europe.

This, to date, is the only real accomplishment of missile defense: The shield has effectively killed old arms-control treaties and ended deterrence. The arms race is back, only this time it's multilateral. China has officially chest-butted us in space, and Russia intends to aim missiles at Europe while massing troops at the borders of our allies. America, in return, gets the comfort of the shield.

Missile defense may not be good for international relations, but it's certainly good for business. When I board the SBX in Hawaii, I am cleared at the gangplank by a Native American from Alaska wearing the official uniform of Alutiiq Security. Because SBX will ultimately be stationed in Alaska, the contract for its security went to a local Native American tribe. As with its complex technology and multiple military rivalries, the missile defense system is also "layered" in another way -- as a series of receding and lucrative private contracts. Boeing is the prime contractor for the SBX, but Raytheon is in charge of operating the radar, and that is just the beginning.

"This is what is called a government-owned, contractor-operated facility," the SBX's engineer tells me. He and I are eating lunch in the dining room, which is contracted to yet another private company. From a blackboard filled with yummy offerings, I order a first course of coconut curried chicken and rice soup, followed by a tasty Asian-style pork chop. This ain't your daddy's Navy, because this is not the United States Navy. There is not a single U. S. Navy officer to be found on board the SBX. In fact, there is not a single uniformed member of the U.S. military stationed here. Over soup, I ask the engineer who the crew works for. "Interocean American Shipping," he says. America's most sophisticated weapons system, it turns out, is being entrusted to a commercial ship operator based in New Jersey.

On the bridge, I meet the crew that navigates the SBX. The captain is a nice, barrel-chested man. Right away, it is explained that he is not the captain of the ship -- that's "Navy talk" -- but rather the "master of the vessel." The master is a merchant marine and has no military affiliation. Neither do the chief mate, third mate and second mate who wander in. One is a regular-looking guy in jeans and a T-shirt, with a goatee and the kind of bad-boy laugh one hears in a sports bar; another is a young punkish woman in a Grateful Dead-style T-shirt, a floridly colored tattoo of birds and plants running up one arm from wrist to elbow; a third is an older guy in a jumpsuit unzipped to reveal the upholstery of his chest hair. Out on the deck, just under the huge white radar dome, I meet a crew member who is making some of the repairs to the SBX. Judging from the bandanna pulling back his long sandy hair, his big loop earrings and the emblem on the T-shirt stretched across his impressive gut, I suspect he rode his Harley to the missile defense shield this morning.

Once SBX is fully completed, the Pentagon may assume responsibility for its operation. But multiple layers of contractors will likely remain throughout the system. Over lunch in the dining room, I ask the engineer how many companies work on the SBX. He shakes his head. "The number of different companies that play a role in this is too long to list," he says. "I mean, it goes from companies like Boeing and Bau Solutions to Raytheon, Harris, Northrop Grumman, all the way down to itty-bitty companies like Decibel Research, and then to legions of small companies and people."

And that's just the SBX. Multiply this single system by all the components in the vast "system of systems" that comprise our missile defense shield, and you begin to get an idea of how extensive the layering is. The Airborne Laser -- still in preliminary testing -- has forty prime and subcontractors. The contracts are literally layered across the country. Defense contractors make no secret of this aspect of their work: It is widely accepted as a form of political protection. On Boeing's Web site, the company provides a map of the companies on "Team ABL" in fifteen states, from Heraeus (large optics) in Georgia to Brashear LP (turret assembly) in Pennsylvania to CSA Engineering (jitter reduction) in California to AOA (wavefront sensor) and Xinetics (deformable mirrors) in Massachusetts.

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