U.S. Plans:  Official Danish Report Favors U.S. Radar Upgrade in Greenland

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Denmark issued a report Tuesday favoring a U.S. Defense Department request to upgrade a radar in Greenland for use in the planned U.S. national missile defense system (see GSN, Jan. 2).

No final decision has been made yet, however, and vocal opposition persists from the Danish Parliament and newspapers and Greenland’s home-rule government.  A parliamentary hearing is scheduled this month and a debate is scheduled for April.

The radar, at the U.S. Thule Air Base in remote northwestern Greenland, would be intended primarily for tracking ballistic missile attacks launched from the Middle East toward the U.S. mainland, experts say. 

Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark with no legal foreign policy authority.  The native population largely opposes granting the request, citing previous negative experiences with the U.S. base and concerns about being targeted for attacks because of the base.

Positive Response

The Danish Foreign Ministry report says official consideration of the issue had produced an “immediately positive response to the American request.”

“Security is achieved in partnership.  Denmark stands to benefit from a collective security guarantee in NATO.  We must ensure that this security guarantee remains as credible as possible,” the report says.

It also says, though, that further debates and discussions are planned for the coming months, an indication that no final decision has been made.  By comparison, the United Kingdom, which had received a similar request, indicated its preference for approval and then announced approval before public discussions and parliamentary consideration were fully concluded (see GSN, Feb. 6).

Addressing a range of criticism, the Danish report says the upgrade would not make Greenland a target for terrorists or rogue states nor further destabilize the international system.

It also says approval of the request would not oblige Denmark to participate in the system, or to pay for it, but would make it easier for Denmark to join the system in the future if it chose.

Danish critics have said the radar itself, because of its location, would provide no protection to Denmark from missiles launched from the Middle East.

Opposition Persists

The issue is controversial in Denmark, with at least one vocal party arguing against the request.

The chairman of Greenland’s home-rule government, Hans Enoksen, has called the report one-sided for only representing Danish points of view, according to Jorgen Dragsdahl, a Danish journalist who has been tracking the issue closely and opposes approval.

Enoksen also criticized the Danish government for releasing the report only in the Danish language, according to Dragsdahl, because Enoksen “can’t read Danish.”

Enoksen reportedly said he sent a letter of protest to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Some politicians are trying to link approval of the U.S. request to a renegotiation of a 1951 security agreement between Denmark and the United States, so as to allow Greenland to become a party and to receive direct compensation from Washington for use of the facility.

The report says Denmark is willing to “work with” Greenland’s home-rule government in “modernizing” the treaty.

U.S. officials have said they prefer not to renegotiate the treaty.

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ABM Treaty:  House Democrat Decides Against Appealing Lawsuit Dismissal

U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit to block the U.S. withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, decided in mid-January to not appeal the dismissal of his lawsuit, Arms Control Today reported this month (see GSN, Jan. 9).

Kucinich, along with the 31 other representatives listed as co-plaintiffs in the suit, decided against appealing the dismissal because of what they considered to be positive aspects of the judge’s ruling, according to one of their lawyers.  In his ruling, Judge John Bates indicated that a court might need to address at some point whether congressional approval is needed before the United States withdraws from a treaty. 

The representatives also considered in their decision that a higher court might issue a more negative decision and that a higher court would be less likely to take up the issue now that more time has passed since the United States withdrew from the treaty (see GSN, June 13, 2002; Arms Control Today, March 2003).

For further information, see:

ABM Treaty Text and Associated Documents (U.S. Defense Department)

U.S. Fact Sheet on Withdrawal from ABM Treaty

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U.S. Plans:  Broken Chip Connectors Caused December Test Failure

A faulty computer chip connection caused last December’s test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system to fail, U.S. Missile Defense Agency officials said yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 11, 2002).

The exoatmospheric kill vehicle, built by Raytheon, failed to separate from its booster because it “didn’t get the proper signal to where it was going,” said agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish.

A “mechanical break” occurred in two “pins” that connect computer chips to a circuit board, Kadish said at a missile defense conference sponsored by the agency and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Defense officials have not yet determined why the pins broke, but the kill vehicle’s technology is sound and “there’s no reason to” consider changing it, he added.

Kadish also announced the establishment of an office to improve the agency’s quality control, which he said was the culprit in three failed midcourse defense test flights.

“There is no detail too small to worry about in this program,” Kadish said.

He also defended the White House proposal to bypass operational testing requirements to field the Ground-based Midcourse Defense and the Sea-based Midcourse Defense in 2004 (see GSN, Feb. 24).

“The best operational testing you can get is to have a system that people are using and improve it,” Kadish said (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, March 4).

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Israel:  Reservists Called Up to Operate Patriot Missile Defense System

Israeli reserve soldiers are being called up to learn how to operate the second Patriot missile defense battery that Tel Aviv has received from Germany, Ha’aretz reported today (see GSN, Jan. 30).

Another Patriot battery from Germany is already up and running and U.S.-supplied Patriot batteries are being deployed around Tel Aviv today.

The Patriots are intended as a backup to the Arrow missile defense system (see GSN, Feb. 12).

Israeli defense officials are also worried about Syrian efforts to develop its Scud-D missiles, although there is no imminent sign of a confrontation between Syria and Israel, Ha’aretz reported (Amos Harel, Ha’aretz, March 4).

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U.S. Plans:  Airborne Laser System Is Overweight; Mission Expands Too

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency recently expanded the Airborne Laser’s requirements — the system must now be able to down intercontinental ballistic missiles — but the laser is already 5,000 pounds overweight and contractors have only produced six of 14 modules, Defense News reported today (see GSN, Jan. 6).

The system must weigh less than 175,000 pounds to be carried by a modified Boeing 747 cargo plane, but the first six components already weigh 180,000 pounds, U.S. officials said.

The system can still operate without the full complement of modules, but the laser beam would be weaker and the plane would need to fly closer to targets to be effective, according to Kumar Patel, a University of California physics professor.

Pentagon officials met Feb. 26 to discuss reducing the weight of the components, improving the laser’s optics and boosting the output of the existing components.

The weight issues would not affect the program’s survival, however.  “The promise of ABL in the larger context of U.S. strategic defense has, at this point, convinced everyone that it’s got to move ahead into fielding,” a senior Pentagon official said (Ratnam/Kaufman, Defense News, March 3).

Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector, meanwhile, delivered the Beacon Illuminator Laser to the Airborne Laser project.  The newly delivered component is designed to measure atmospheric changes that could throw off the Airborne Laser’s beam (Space & Missile, March 3).

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