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U.S. Plans II: Danish Lawmakers Consider U.S. Radar Upgrade Request Danish lawmakers Wednesday heard from U.S. officials and nonproliferation analysts on a U.S. request to upgrade the Thule radar facility in Greenland as part of efforts to develop a U.S. national missile defense system (see GSN, March 6). Assistant Defense Secretary J.D. Crouch urged Danish legislators to allow the United States to improve the radar. “An upgraded radar plays an important role in the U.S. initial missile defense system in dealing with potential threats emanating from the Middle East,” Crouch said. “If upgraded, the Thule early warning radar, like other upgraded early warning radars, would detect incoming ballistic missiles, track them and provide info to a missile defense system,” he said. U.S. nonproliferation analyst Joseph Cirincione argued against approving the U.S. request. While Denmark might want to approve the request out of a sense of friendship, they should not do so out of concern over the threat of a ballistic missile strike, said Cirincione, director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace. He argued that the threat of a missile attack is actually decreasing, especially with the U.S. defeat of Iraq. Danish lawmakers also heard from a representative of Greenland’s home-rule government who argued that the original 1951 agreement authorizing the Thule radar station gave Greenlanders little say in how the facility would be used. Danish officials have said they would attempt to reach a decision on the U.S. upgrade request before parliament recessed for the summer (Peter Heinlein, VOA News, April 23).
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