BMD and Europe

Updated April 2007

U.S. allies in Europe hold a wide range of views on BMD. In general, they support defenses against short-range missiles to protect North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in the field. The United States is working with two NATO allies, Italy and Germany, on a jointly funded theater missile defense (TMD) system, known as Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS).

U.S. European allies are divided, however, on U.S. development and deployment of defenses against long-range missiles. Great Britain and France have been increasingly supportive of the U.S. approach, but Germany has been more negative.

British and Danish participation is required for a successful U.S. ballistic missile defense system because key radars would be located in Great Britain and in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory. In February 2003, the British government agreed to permit radar facilities at Fylingdales to be incorporated into the U.S. missile defense system. In August 2004, Denmark and the United States signed an agreement providing that the Thule radar base in Greenland will be upgraded. The agreement does not allow the United States to use the radar in its missile defense system, although talks on this issue continue. Greenland is opposed to further participation in the U.S. defense system.  The radars in Britain and Greenland would aid the United States in tracking and intercepting ballistic missiles launched from the Middle East.

Other issues troubling European countries concern the development of a European BMD system or the lack of such a system. A key question is how the sovereign states of Europe could organize an integrated European BMD system. What threats such a system would defend against, how it would be funded, who would control it, and where it would be deployed raise highly complex technical and political questions. At the same time, European countries are also concerned that a U.S. national missile defense system could "de-couple" the United States from Europe in a future crisis or war. If a European state were attacked, the United States might sit under its defensive umbrella and refuse to take the risk of defending its allies.

Further Reading:

	BASIC, BMD: The European Debate
	Center for Defense Information, "Missile Defense Updates: Europe"
	BASIC, Leyla Kattan and Nigel Chamberlain, "The Missile Debate Gap in Britain: As Wide As Ever in 2004"
	BASIC, Ian Davis, "NATO and Missile Defence: Stay Tuned This Could Get Interesting"
	CNS, Mountbatten Centre, "International Perspectives on Missile Proliferation and Defenses"
	NIPP, Colin Gray, "European Perspectives on U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense"
	Arms Control Today, Camille Grand, "The View from the Other Side of the Atlantic"
	WMD Insights, Richard Weitz, "Special Report: The European Ballistic Missile Defense Dispute"