Obstacles ahead for missile defense
A US missile-defense system in Eastern Europe remains a distant prospect despite its high profile in US-Russia talks.
from the July 9, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
The House version of the fiscal 2008 defense bill, approved by the chamber last month, cuts out about half of the $310 million requested by the Bush administration for preparation of European missile-defense sites. The Senate version – which faces a full chamber vote this week – would reduce funding by some $85 million.
"The committee believes that construction and deployment activities are premature," says the Senate Armed Services report on its '08 legislation.
The two-stage interceptor that the US has proposed for European deployment has not yet been developed, and under current plans will not be flight-tested until 2010, according to the report.
Nor would the deployment of 10 interceptors protect all NATO European territory, says the report. And it's uncertain whether Iran will develop missiles capable of striking most of Europe, or nuclear warheads small enough to top them prior to 2015.
Pentagon officials say that they are trying to stay ahead of a developing threat – and that the West has misjudged its adversaries before.
The administration is trying to field a relatively rudimentary system, and then follow up with incremental improvements, say missile defense proponents. This "spiral development" process is essential to missile defense because it is a complicated system that must be built before it can be tested, they say.
"The Senate Armed Services Committee, however, has chosen to ignore this reality" by placing restrictions on the program, writes Baker Spring, a Heritage Foundation defense expert, in a recent analysis of the program.
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