According to reports from Polish newspapers, the United States has officially terminated its plans to put missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic. The missile defense systems in Europe were to protect both Europe and the United States from ballistic missiles was commonly called the “Third Site” and it included radar systems in the Czech Republic and interceptors in Poland.
The system has received much criticism from Russia and it is widely believed that the Obama Administration is ditching the plans for the Third Site as a way to improve relations with Russia. Russia views the Third Site as a way for American to move its forces to Russia’s borders and believes the systems might have a destabilizing effect on Russian nuclear arsenal.
It is sad that perhaps it is the Russian arguments, more than anything else, that influenced the decision to cut the systems. This is because the Russian arguments are based on emotions rather than technical capabilities. For example there was only to be 10 interceptors in Poland. It is hard to imagine that these would have any destabilizing effect on the thousands of nuclear tipped ballistic missiles in the Russian arsenal. It also sends a poor message to our allies in Eastern Europe that the United States may not be the most reliable partner.
But more importantly, without the radar in the Czech Republic and the interceptors in Poland, the United States, our troops abroad, and our allies remain vulnerable to missile attacks – especially from reckless and hostile nations like Iran.
Here is Senator Shelby’s op-ed to the University of Alabama newspaper, The Crimson White
“Threats require missile defense”
“For nearly 60 years, North Alabama has been the epicenter of our nation’s missile defense efforts. Now home to the Missile Defense Agency, Space and Missile Defense Command, Army Materiel Command and the Missile and Space Intelligence Center, Huntsville has consistently demonstrated its vital role in the research and development of hit-to-kill missile technology. Indeed, it was 25 years ago that the Army first successfully intercepted a missile with another missile. This accomplishment was once thought impossible, but the perseverance and intelligence of the Huntsville space, defense and engineering community demonstrated a level of achievement that would be replicated many times over in the years to come.
Huntsville’s efforts have undoubtedly enhanced the safety and security of our nation against threats from rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea. In the wake of several recent missile tests in North Korea, now is not the time to curtail these efforts. We must do more.
The current administration’s budget proposal reduces or eliminates several key programs critical to our national missile defense efforts. The reduction of Ground-based Midcourse Defense funding and the termination of both the Kinetic Energy Interceptor and Multiple Kill Vehicle programs are clearly the wrong steps to take at the wrong time.
Without question, we simply cannot roll back the progress we have made when our enemies are advancing their missile and nuclear capabilities. Today, there are 27 countries that have ballistic missile capability. Iran, China and Pakistan have all tested their capabilities in an effort to show the world that they too have achieved a certain level of missile technology. More importantly, North Korea not only tested several missiles in April, but detonated a nuclear weapon in May. These examples vividly illustrate the overarching reason the United States needs a strong missile defense system — the threat of a missile strike is real.
North Korea’s clear act of aggression should strengthen our resolve for a stronger national security strategy. We have made great strides over the past decade due in large part to the work of those in Alabama. Taking away from these efforts only reduces the level of protection afforded to the citizens of our country. Missile defense is critical to our national defense, and we must continue to develop an integrated, layered defense, especially in light of very real and ongoing threats around the world.”
Russia has said it has deployed its S-400 Triumf missile defense systems to its border with North Korea. The chief of the Russian general staff said the move is a defensive measure designed only to protect Russia from an errant North Korean missile test. While in the Mongolian capitol of UIanbatar He said that Russia is, “definitely concerned by the conditions under which tests are being carried out in North Korea, including nuclear devices” and that, “We are currently considering what the most effective measures would be to guarantee no debris would fall if a missile launch failed.”
The s-400 Triumf is a mobile land-based missile defense has a reported range of 400km or about 250 miles. The Russian city of Vladivostok has a population of around 600,000 people and is less than 100 miles from North Korea.
The Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System or JLENS is a revolutionary take on an extremely old idea. The 75 meter long Raytheon JLENS is a tactical advanced aerial sensor system and is elevated and propelled by aerostats. The UAV will be able to be stay up to 30 days on station.
The system has a unique “over-the-horizon” detection and tracking ability that make it an idea system to defend against missile attacks. This type of technology is desperately needed to protect our forces deployed and to free up manned aircraft to other vital missions.
In 2005 Raytheon was awarded a $1.3 billion contract for development and demonstration. And it is estimated that the total lifetime value of the project will be around $7.15 billion.
Check out this interactive timeline of the history of missile defense. It’s at the Missile Defense Agency website and covers most major missile defense milestones. You can click on the icons for pictures and videos that bring the story of missile defense to life!
On August 23rd the MDA successfully completed a test using missile defense elements and technology. The test took place at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and used the Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX), the AN/TPY-2 X-Band radar and the External Sensors Laboratory. The test, named Glory Trip 195, was designed to measure and improve sensor capabilities as well as to assess the operational readiness of our ground-based strategic deterrent.
This past week at the Space and Missile Defense Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James “Hoss” Cartwright addressed the relevance of missile defense. He said the key to missile defense was striking a balance between, “the exquisite and good enough.” He stressed that when the Quadrennial Defense Review, Nuclear Posture Review, Ballistic Missile Defense Review and Space Posture Review are completed, it will give government and military leaders a chance to reassess all the defense programs to make sure we are, “doing the right things.”
Speaking about the procurement process he asked , “are the tools that we’re procuring relevant to the reality of the wars that we’re in and to anybody’s best estimate of the wars that we’re likely to go to?” And questioned if they were, “strategy adaptable? Because if we’ve learned anything over the last eight years of this conflict, it’s that the enemy has a vote in where we’re going to go and where this fight’s going to go.”
He also stressed a theme of balance in trying to integrate the different policy recommendations made by the different reviews and commissions. “These are the kinds of thoughts that we’re trying to understand as we start to look at the synergies between the Ballistic Missile Defense Review and the Nuclear Posture Review”, “How do these things fit together? And it’s not one size fits all.”
He did say progress has been made on developing missile defense technologies and added that the underlying theme of defense systems procurement is adaptation. “We’ve gone the right direction in missile defense. We have proliferated; we have so many choices, the adversaries just plain don’t know where to go.” “We’ve got to do the same with the capabilities we have in space, integrating them across domains, so it doesn’t matter what [the enemy does] to my air, ground or my space,”. “There’s always another answer, and we can adapt faster than you can change.”
I’ll post more quotes from General Cartwright at the confreence as I find them.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece American Foreign Policy Council Vice President Ilan Berman and Foundation for Defense of Democracies President Clifford May argue that Secretary of State Clinton was right when she said in Thailand that the U.S. needs to build a “defense umbrella” in the Middle East to protect our allies from Iranian nuclear intimidation. They argue that any “defense umbrella” needs to have the capability to protect against nuclear capable ballistic missiles.
The only question to Berman and May is whether or not we are willing to doing this. The 2010 Budget calls for a $1.4 billion dollar reduction to missile defense budget and many experts are worried this is only the beginning of the cuts. Additionally they are worried that these cuts will mean that the missile defense progress made during the second Bush Presidency will be lost.
They call for the Obama Administration to reconsider its positions on the MKV, the ABL, and the “Third Site” which consists of sensors in the Czech Republic and interceptors in Poland. They also call for an end to the thinking that the ability to defend against missiles traveling through space is the same thing as “weaponizing” space.
They argue that pursuing missile defense half-heartedly only encourages investment in missile defense technology by our adversaries because it leads them to believe they could have the capability to overwhelm our defenses. Finally they say the discussions about missile defense should enjoy broad bipartisan support because the mission of missile defense is simply to protect the American people, our armed forces and our allies from attack – and there is nothing controversial about that.
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Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance
