The United States is urging NATO members in Europe to
adopt a missile defense umbrella to stop
intermediate-range missile attacks from rogues states in the Middle East.
U.S. officials said this will be a key topic on the agenda of Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during the NATO summit in Prague. The two-day
summit begins Thursday.
"We expect that NATO leaders to initiate a new missile defense
feasibility study to examine options for how missile defense capabilities
might be used to defend alliance territory and population centers against a
full range of missile threats," a senior U.S. defense official said. "This
is an expansion beyond where NATO was where NATO was focused much more on
so-called theater missile defenses against Ñ to primarily defend against
deployed forces operating in theaters. So now we expect this feasibility
study to be conducted by NATO to look at how population centers and alliance
territory itself might be defended."
Officials said Washington has warned NATO allies that they are
vulnerable to missile attacks by such countries as Iran, Iraq and Libya, Middle East Newsline reported.
They pointed to Iran's Shihab-4 intermediate-range missile program, which is
said to be ready for its first test flight, as well as Libya's new
medium-range missile. The Libya missile program is being led by Iran and
North Korea.
"In this track, we have a proposed framework for participation in the
U.S. missile defense program," U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton told
a missile defense conference in London on Monday. "This framework would
allow individual nations and their industries to participate at various
levels depending on their interest, resources, and overall contributions."
Missile Defense Agency director Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish said Washington
is discussing missile defense with several NATO allies. Kadish said the
discussions are focusing on the level of participation with each of the
partner countries in an arrangement similar to the Joint Strike Fighter
program.
Kadish said the arrangement means that NATO allies or other foreign
participants can help influence the type of missile defense system in their
region depending on the level of investment by those countries. He said the
United States would determine the level of participation required from
foreign partners based on the perceived missile threats to those countries.
He said no major agreements have yet been completed.
So far, Britain has been the most responsive to participating in U.S.
missile defense experts. British Defense Secretary
Geoff Hoon said his government has approved research programs with
Washington and would "consider seriously" allowing the United States access
to the Fylingdales early-warning radar station to establish a missile
defense umbrella. Kadish was scheduled to visit the air base this week.
"It is right that we recognize the potential contribution of missile
defense to a comprehensive strategy to deal with the threat from ballistic
missiles, a strategy that includes non-proliferation and
counter-proliferation measures, diplomacy and deterrence," Hoon said earlier
this month.
The Czech Republic has also offered to allow the United States to deploy
missile interceptors on Czech territory. Czech Defense Minister Jaroslav
Tvrdik said Washington could deploy radar and sensor systems to detect and
track missile attacks on Europe. Tvrdik said Prague could supply its VERA-E
passive radar system as part of the anti-missile defense umbrella.
