U.S. Plans:  Senators Use Report to Criticize Missile Defense

Citing a critical government report released today, Democratic Senators Carl Levin (Mich.) and Jack Reed (R.I.) condemned U.S. President George W. Bush’s plan to field a national missile defense system by next year (see GSN, June 4).

“The GAO [General Accounting Office] report provides a troubling picture of a system without direction,” Reed said.  “The president’s decision to deploy an untested national missile defense system still seems to be motivated more by politics than effective military strategy,” he added.

Senate Democrats do not have the votes to block the missile defense plan, so they have instead focused on including language in the defense authorization bill that demands performance criteria and assessments, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, May 23; Bradley Graham, Washington Post, June 5).

“Fielding such an unproven system may pick up political points with some people, but it won’t contribute to the defense or security of our country,” Levin said (Kerry Gildea, Defense Daily, June 5).

The GAO report, requested by Levin and Reed, criticized the Missile Defense Agency for rushing the program.

“Giving up this approach opens the door to greater cost and performance risks,” the GAO report says.  “While doing so may help meet the president’s deadline, it also increases the potential some elements may not work as intended,” the report adds.

The agency disagreed and said it was confident that a working system would be in place by October 2004.

“We are highly confident that we will field an effective, reliable defense of our 50 states by fall of 2004,” the agency said.  “This confidence comes from the outstanding technical success we have achieved in our development and test program,” the agency added.

The GAO did praise the agency for adopting “practices that offer the best opportunity to develop a complex weapon system successfully.”

Specifically, the plan to implement the missile defense system in stages, gradually increasing capability, is similar to commercial business practice and has experienced success, according to the report.

The report faulted the agency, however, for not identifying a total cost at the start of the project.

“Such an estimate would help decision makers in evaluating which technologies to include because they offer the best capability for the funds invested,” the report says.

The GAO also faulted the Defense Department for not allocating funds in its plan for spending through 2009.  Officials told the GAO that the funds were not allocated because the missile agency is not assuming political leaders will decide to develop the system and put it into operation (General Accounting Office report, June 5).

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Japan:  Tokyo Plans Two-Layered Missile Defense System

Japan plans to build a two-layered missile defense system using Patriot Advanced Capability 3 and SM-3 missiles, the Asahi Shimbun reported today (see GSN, April 17).

The Japanese Defense Agency will ask for the missiles in the fiscal 2004 budget, the newspaper reported.  Japan has been investigating a missile defense system largely because of the threat posed by North Korea (Xinhua News Agency, June 5).

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U.S. Plans:  Missile Defense Deadline Could Hurt Overall Effort, GAO Says

In the effort to field a missile defense capability by October 2004, the United States might cause damage to the overall goal of defending the country against the threat of ballistic missiles, according to a General Accounting Office report scheduled to be released tomorrow (see GSN, May 16).

The Missile Defense Agency has cut flight tests, leading the GAO to claim that the lack of proven technology could leave the system “impaired.”

“Giving up this approach opens the door to greater cost and performance risks,” the report says.  “While doing so may help meet the president’s deadline, it also increases the potential some elements may not work as intended,” the report adds.

The MDA disagreed with the report.

“We are highly confident that we will field an effective, reliable defense of our 50 states by fall of 2004,” the agency said.  “This confidence comes from the outstanding technical success we have achieved in our development and test program,” the agency added (Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg.com, June 3).

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U.S.-Canada:  Chretien Supports Missile Defense Involvement

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien has thrown his country’s support behind a U.S. plan to develop a missile defense shield, Canada’s National Post reported Saturday (see GSN, May 30).

Ottawa approved negotiations Thursday with U.S. defense officials on missile defense cooperation.

“We are starting discussions because it is the defense of our cities.  The Americans do want to defend effectively New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago and Seattle.  Physically they have to stop the missiles before they get to Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal,” Chretien said.  However, he said he remained opposed to the weaponization of space.

“We are talking at this time about the defense from missiles.  It is not the weaponization of space.  It is establishing a defense system to protect North America,” he said.  “There will not be a program in which we will participate if it is to be the weaponization of the space,” he added (Fife/Alberts, National Post, May 31).

A recently released report from the Canadian Defense Science Advisory Board recommends Ottawa become involved in the missile defense effort.  The study was completed last August but was not made public until recently.

“This would be prudent given the threat to our forces and could position Canada much more strongly for continental missile defense in the future,” the advisory board’s report says (Canadian Press, June 1).

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European Plans:  NATO Panel Approves Missile Defense Study Requirements

NATO’s Military Committee last week approved a document detailing what officials want to see in a missile defense feasibility study to be conducted later this year (see GSN, May 15).

The classified military operational requirement was approved May 27 in remarkably short time, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported this week.  The contract for the study should be issued in October, Jane’s reported.

“There has been goodwill, accommodation and flexibility all round, and in a compressed timescale,” according to a NATO armaments official.  “The point of the new feasibility study is to inform a (future deployment) decision, not to presume it.  It is an options analysis to form a baseline from which that decision will be made — how and whether to go beyond TMD [theater missile defense],” he added (Luke Hill, Jane’s Defense Weekly, June 4).

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Israel:  U.S. Congress Cautions Against Arrow Missile Exports

Congress has warned Israel not to export the Arrow missile defense system without prior approval from Washington, Defense Week reported today (see GSN, Jan. 21).

The Arrow system was developed jointly by the United States and Israel, where it is currently deployed.  Washington paid most of the development costs for the system and also contributes to production costs, according to Defense Week (see GSN, Feb. 12).

In a new report, the House Armed Services Committee said, “The committee has reservations about recent interest shown by Israel in the sale of Arrow to third parties.  In the more general context of international cooperative missile defense programs, the committee has concerns regarding how such sales comport with the obligations of the United States under international treaties and agreements, the possibility of technology transfers that might assist foreign offensive missile programs and the rights of the United States to share in revenue generated through third party sales.”

The Senate Armed Services committee also complained about the potential Israeli export of a U.S.-funded program.

“The committee notes that the Department of Defense provided two-thirds of the funding for the development of the Arrow system and continues to provide funding for Arrow production, and that the Arrow system embodies U.S.-developed technologies,” according to a report from the Senate committee.  “The committee notes that any sale of the Arrow ballistic missile defense system to third parties should take place only after approval by the U.S. government, pursuant to the requirements of existing law,” the report says.

Exporting the Arrow might be prohibited by the Missile Technology Control Regime, but U.S. defense contractor Boeing ships Arrow parts to Israel for final assembly to avoid MTCR restrictions, Defense Week reported.  U.S. President George W. Bush has supported loosening the MTCR to allow for the proliferation of missile defense technologies (see GSN, May 21; John Donnelly, Defense Week, June 2).

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U.S. Plans:  Classified Document Cites North Korea as Missile Threat

U.S. President George W. Bush cited North Korea as a missile threat to the United States in a classified document justifying a national ballistic missile defense system, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, May 21).

Bush signed the classified document, National Security Presidential Directive-23, in December and the White House released an unclassified fact sheet on the directive last week.  The unclassified document, however, does not make direct reference to North Korea.

“Some states, such as North Korea, are aggressively pursuing the development of weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles as a means of coercing the United States and our allies,” the classified presidential directive says.

The United States will seek to field the missile defense system in 2004 and upgrade missile defense capabilities in 2005.

“In addition, the United States will seek permission respectively from the (United Kingdom) and Denmark to upgrade early warning radar in Fylingdales and Thule, Greenland, as part of our capability,” the directive says (see GSN, Feb. 6 and April 25).  The directive also instructs the secretaries of state and defense to “promote international missile defense cooperation” within military alliances, the Times reported (see GSN, May 23; Bill Gertz, Washington Times, May 27).

Silo Construction Underway in Alaska

Meanwhile, construction is underway on several missile silos at Fort Greely in Alaska, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2002).  The silos are part of the Bush administration’s efforts to deploy limited national missile defenses beginning next year.

Workers have been lowering steel cylinders into recently dug 80-foot-deep holes at the facility, according to the Post.  Technicians are also lining the walls of the new facility’s buildings with steel plates, in part to protect against the electromagnetic effects of a high-altitude nuclear blast.

Officials at Fort Greely have identified 13,000 separate tasks that need to be completed before Sept. 30, 2004, when the base is scheduled to be operational (Bradley Graham, Washington Post, May 27).

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Russia:  Surface-to-Air Missile System Could be Base for European Missile Defense, Russian General Says

Recent tests have demonstrated that the Russian Triumph S-400 surface-to-air missile system is capable of defending an area the size of a European country from a missile attack, Russian Army Gen. Anatoly Kornukov said last week (see GSN, May 15).  The system could also serve as the base for a European nonstrategic missile defense, Kornukov said (ITAR-Tass, May 22 in FBIS-SOV, May 23).

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