(United Press International: Washington) -- According to a United Press International column by senior news analyst Martin Sieff, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has praised the Missile Defense Agency in a new report for improving its quality processes. The progress was cited in a GAO report delivered April 30 as testimony before the Subcommittee on Defense of the Committee on Appropriations of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The report acknowledged that during 2004, as UPI had previously reported, "Poor quality control procedures caused the missile defense program to experience test failures and slowed production."

However, the report, GAO-07-7999T, also confirmed previous reports about the emphasis on quality control in engineering the component parts of anti-ballistic missile interceptors that MDA director Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering III has made a main priority of the U.S. ballistic missile defense program.

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