United States:  Officials Fire Scud in Flight Experiment

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency yesterday launched and tracked a Scud missile in an effort to learn more about its flight path and mechanics to enhance U.S. missile defenses, an agency official said (see GSN, Oct. 22).

Officials closely studied the flight of the missile, which they launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, until it landed more than 100 miles off the U.S. coast in the Pacific Ocean, said Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, an agency spokesman.

“The data obtained from a variety of sensors observing the flight will contribute to the development of enhanced missile defense technologies to intercept and destroy Scuds and Scud-type missiles before they can reach their target,” Vandenberg said in a statement.

New sensors measured a variety of characteristics, including the Scud’s speed, altitude and engine burn rate.  U.S. officials last fired a Scud in 1997 (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, Nov. 15).

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British Plans:  London Supports Joint System With United States

The United Kingdom might soon need to protect itself with a missile defense system, British Defense Minister Geoff Hoon said yesterday, indicating support for U.S. development of such a system (see GSN, Nov. 11).

The United Kingdom might find itself the target of rogue states armed with ballistic missiles, and if nuclear deterrence fails, then officials would need a backup defense against the missiles, Hoon said during a speech to the Foreign Policy Center in London.

“We have a new problem — of the rogue state with a limited but dangerous capacity,” he said.  “It is in the interests of all responsible states to confront this,” he added.

The United Kingdom is considering joining the United States to develop a missile defense system to protect both countries and perhaps all of Europe, Hoon said.

“There may come a day when we need to decide to add a further capability to our current range of responses by acquiring missile defenses for the U.K. and for Europe as a whole, in the way the U.S. has already decided,” he said (Michael Evans, London Times, Nov. 13).

Hoon’s comments are likely to be seen as a sign that the United Kingdom plans to agree to U.S. requests to use British air bases as part of the U.S. missile defense system, according to the Financial Times.  Hoon also dismissed concerns that the development of a missile defense system would result in a new arms race, saying there is “no evidence that this has happened or is happening” (Jean Eaglesham, Financial Times, Nov. 13).

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Japan:  United States Plans to Deploy Interceptors in 2008

The United States has told Japan that it plans to begin deploying jointly developed missile interceptors on U.S. Aegis destroyers in 2008 as part of the joint U.S.-Japanese missile defense initiative, U.S. and Japanese sources said Friday (see GSN, Nov. 11).

The U.S. plan calls for deploying the missile interceptors first on U.S. Aegis destroyers and later on Japanese destroyers because developers need time to integrate operations between the U.S. Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force, sources said (Kyodo News Service, Nov. 9).

Japanese officials have been reluctant, however, to move past the research phase of the joint missile defense initiative, citing concerns about the relationship between the initiative and Japan’s right to participate in collective defense, according to the Kyodo News Service.  According to Tokyo’s interpretation, the Japanese Constitution bans exercising such rights, Kyodo reported.

During a working-level security meeting in Washington last month, the United States called on Japan to decide soon whether to move to the development phase of the initiative (Kyodo News Service/Japan Times, Nov. 10).

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