Panel OKs ‘Star Wars’ Testing

WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee, working to finish next year’s defense budget, voted today to permit tests of “Star Wars” anti-missile systems that might be deployed in the next decade.

The panel voted 28 to 23 to overturn a decision by one of its subcommittees that would have blocked any tests of the so-called “kinetic kill vehicle,” a weapon the Pentagon is investigating as the basis for the first stages of a defense against Soviet nuclear missiles. The vote came as the committee worked to complete a bill authorizing $304 billion in defense spending for the fiscal year.