Iraq:  Experts Will Study Captured Iraqi Missiles in the United States, Official Says

By Joe Fiorill
Global Security Newswire

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. military is preparing to transport several Iraqi missiles from Iraq to the United States to examine the missiles’ capabilities and to attempt to determine whether toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein received outside help in developing them, U.S. Missile and Space Intelligence Center Director Clyde Walker told Global Security Newswire today.

Within the next month, a number of al-Samoud 2 and Ababil 100 missiles are to be brought to the Missile and Space Intelligence Center here and the National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville, Va., respectively, Walker said at the annual Space and Missile Defense Conference.

“Maybe we’ll have one available to show you next year” at the conference, Walker said during a speech yesterday at the event.

Under Hussein, Iraq was banned by the United Nations from possessing missiles with ranges greater than 150 kilometers, and Iraq declared the ranges of both Ababil and al-Samoud missiles to be under that threshold.  Walker told GSN, though, that five al-Samoud 2 missiles that Iraq fired — and the United States intercepted — during the recent war had ranges of at least 180 kilometers.

The missiles being brought to the United States represent a portion of a larger number of missiles captured by U.S. and British forces following the end of major combat in Iraq.  Walker said missiles other than those tapped for investigation in the United States will be destroyed.

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Threat Assessment:  United States Faces Growing Missile Threat Over Next Five Years, Officials Say

U.S. officials are predicting that over the next five years the United States will face an increased threat from enemy ballistic and cruise missiles, the Huntsville Times reported yesterday.

“Technology is progressing very fast.  The bad guys out there get this also, and they are using it,” U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Cosumano, head of the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said at the opening of a missile defense conference in Huntsville, Ala. (see related GSN stories, today).

U.S. intelligence has estimated that at least 25 countries and 12 terrorist organizations are developing ballistic missiles, said Clyde Walker, director of the Missile and Space Intelligence Center at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.  Many of those countries are upgrading older missiles, such as the Scud system, or modifying existing systems.  For example, there is concern over Iranian attempts to modify the Russian-designed SA-2 surface-to-air missile into a ground-attack weapon, Walker said (Shelby Spires, Huntsville Times, Aug. 19).

In addition, a new U.S. intelligence report distributed at the conference warns that several countries are developing advanced land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs) that could pose new challenges for U.S. air-defense systems.

New LACMs are being developed with stealthy capabilities to make them less visible to radar and infrared detectors, according to the report, which was prepared by the National Air & Space Intelligence Center.  The report also warns that some missile systems are being developed to use chaff or decoys to make them harder to intercept, according to Aerospace Daily.

Modern LACMs can also be programmed to fly around radar stations and air defenses or to attack them in large numbers, according to the report.

“Defending against LACMs will stress air-defense systems,” the report says (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, Aug. 20).

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India:  Two U.S. Businessmen Win Appeal on Illegal Export Conviction

U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock last month voided the convictions of two U.S. defense company executives who had been found guilty of selling ballistic missile-related equipment to India without a license, the Boston Globe reported today.

Walter Lachman and Maurice Subilia were convicted in 1995 of violating U.S. export regulations by shipping equipment to India that could have improved its Agni missile (see GSN, April 7).  The two men faced up to 10 years in prison and $5 million in fines, according to the Globe.

At the time, the jury found that Lachman and Subilia knew they needed a license to export the equipment.  In a decision unsealed yesterday, however, Woodlock said he was persuaded by the two’s lawyers who had argued that even U.S. Commerce Department officials were unsure if the equipment was covered under the regulations.

Woodlock said that while Lachman and Subilia’s actions were wrong, they were not illegal.

“I have no doubt … that the defendants here sought — for their own private economic advantage and heedless of the national security interests of this country — to exploit imprecision in the regulatory regime for controlling exports,” Woodlock said in his decision.

Prosecutors said they were “perplexed” by Woodlock’s decision to overturn the guilty verdicts.

“We’re extremely disappointed,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan.  “The jury heard the evidence with very specific instructions related to the meaning of the statute itself and concluded these defendants violated the act.  He knew they did it and what they were doing is wrong — that’s irreconcilable,” Sullivan said (Andrea Estes, Boston Globe, Aug. 15).

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