WASHINGTON, Dec 15: A naval component of the planned US missile defence shield was cancelled due to cost overruns, the Pentagon announced late Friday.

The Navy Area Missile Defence Programme “has been cancelled due to poor performance and projected future costs and schedules,” said Edward Aldridge, under secretary of defence for acquisition, in a written statement.

The naval component, still largely in the planning stage, was a minor component of the overall US missile defence programme.

The plan was for cruisers and destroyers equipped with the AEGIS missile system to provide area coverage and shoot down enemy short- and medium-range theatre ballistic missiles.

The navy argued that their main advantage was rapid mobility across international waters, and the ability to defend ports and sites close to their vessels.

By US law, if any programme has a cost increase of at least 25 percent the Defence Department must certify — among other things — that it is essential to national security, and that there are no alternatives providing equal or greater capability at less cost.

In the case of the navy’s missile defence programme, “the programme acquisition unit cost and average procurement unit cost exceeded 57 percent and 65 percent, respectively,” the statement read.

On Thursday the US Congress approved 8.3 billion dollars for ballistic missile defence, a 57 percent increase over current spending levels, as part of a larger defence authorization bill.

The approval came the same day President George W. Bush announced the United States is pulling out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, over Moscow’s objections, in order to deploy a missile defence system.—AFP