Top US Scientists Urge Halt to Funding for Missile Defense Deployment

WASHINGTON -- A group of top US scientists, including nine Nobel Prize winners, called on Congress to stop funding deployment of interceptor missiles for a controversial ground-based missile defense system, saying it was incapable of defending against a real attack.

In a letter, they said the funding should be eliminated until the system can be shown to work through tests that mimic real-world conditions.

"We judge that, in the absence of realistic and successful testing, declaring the system operational -- and any further deployment of GMD components -- would be technically indefensible," the letter said.