House Slashes Funds for Polish Interceptors

President George W. Bush’s planned European missile defense system met a setback yesterday as the U.S. House Appropriations Committee slashed the system’s proposed budget, United Press International reported (see GSN, July 25).

The cuts, $298 million over the next three years, would undermine Bush administration efforts to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland.  The committee did preserve a planned missile detection and interceptor guidance system to be built in the Czech Republic.

Bush, who might veto the cuts if they survive the full House and the Senate, has said the missile defense system would defend Western Europe against a potential Iranian nuclear missile launch.  Russian officials, however, have expressed concerns over the intentions and have sought ways to persuade the Bush administration to retreat from its plans (see GSN, July 12).

Despite the committee action, the Polish interceptors are not completely doomed, UPI reported.  The Senate will most likely develop different legislation than the House and the missile defense funds could be restored as the two bills are reconciled (Martin Sieff, United Press International, July 25).

Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Department today awarded Boeing Corp. an $80 million contract to begin construction plans for the Polish missile defense site and for the Czech radar installation, the Associated Press reported.

Under the contract, Boeing would build one mobile radar system for the Czech Republic and would move one large radar array from the Marshall Islands to Czech territory, said Rick Lehner, spokesman for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

The defense contractor would also construct and deliver the 10 missile interceptors to Poland, he added.

If the project advances according to Pentagon plans, the work would be completed by 2013 and the total contract would be valued at roughly $3.5 billion (Donna Borak, Associated Press/Houston Chronicle, July 25).

The United Kingdom announced yesterday that it would allow the United States to use a Yorkshire air force base as part of the European missile defense array, underscoring that the system would increase British security, Reuters reported.

“Missile defense systems are just that — defensive,” said British Defense Secretary Des Browne in a release.

“They are not for offensive use and by supporting American efforts in this area, both through scientific cooperation and by allowing the use of facilities in the U.K., we are helping to build future protection for our citizens,” he added. 

The statement did not specify exactly how the United States could use the North Yorkshire base at Menwith Hill, but it did indicate the base could “enable satellite data to be passed into the new U.S. missile defense system” (Reuters/Washington Post, July 25).

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday sounded his most defiant and determined note of opposition to the U.S.-backed interceptor system, calling for a rapid buildup of Russian military and intelligence capabilities, the Financial Times reported. 

“One of our absolute priorities is an all-around strengthening of the armed forces,” said Putin to an audience of military officers.  “Both the situation in the world and internal political interests demand that Russia’s foreign intelligence service constantly increase its resources.”

The United Kingdom and the United States have both noted increased Russian espionage, the Times reported.

Putin described both the U.S. military and terrorism as “global threats” while castigating NATO members for failing to ratify the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, the pace from which Russia recently announced suspended.

Putin’s remarks demonstrated his tenacious opposition to the missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, even after he offered to cooperatively build radar sites on Azeri territory as an alternative (see GSN, July 3).

“There has so far been no response to our proposed alternative plans for defense against these hypothetical — I want to underline, hypothetical — missile threats,” Putin said (Buckley/Wagstyl, Financial Times, July 25).

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