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American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC
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INTERIM REPORT HIGHLIGHTS IRAQ MISSILE THREAT In addition to uncovering considerable evidence of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction programs, the Iraq Survey Group has made major revelations regarding Iraq’s ballistic missile programs, CIA pointman David Kay told Congress in an interim report last week. According to the declassified version of the October 2nd briefing (available online at www.cia.gov), American specialists uncovered evidence of “plans and advanced design work for new long-range missiles with ranges up to at least 1000 km--well beyond the 150 km range limit imposed by the UN.” Such a capability, if achieved, “would have allowed Iraq to threaten targets through out the Middle East, including Ankara, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi.” The interim assessment also contains the bombshell that inspectors have found evidence of Iraq’s “clandestine attempts between late-1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology related to 1,300 km range ballistic missiles--probably the No Dong--300 km range anti-ship cruise missiles, and other prohibited military equipment.” WORK MOVES AHEAD ON HIGH ALTITUDE AIRSHIP... The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency has kicked off the next phase in its innovative High Altitude Airship project, the September 30th Space Daily reports. Under a $40 billion government contract just granted by the Defense Department, the Lockheed Martin corporation will helm the next phase of the project, focused on risk reduction and design for the advanced missile defense concept. Under the agreement, Lockheed will deliver a prototype model of the multi-role airship -- which the Pentagon plans to use for ballistic and cruise missile monitoring, as well as anti-missile command and control -- in 2006. ...AS MDA MAPS AGGRESSIVE TESTING SCHEDULE The Bush administration’s missile defense plans, meanwhile, face vigorous testing ahead of the “initial deployment” slated for September 2004, according to Space News (October 6). “There are six to nine planned Ballistic Missile Defense System flight tests, which includes Missile Defense Agency-conducted tests, as well as one PAC-3, conducted by the Army, and one Arrow conducted by Israeli Ministry of Defense,” a Missile Defense Agency official has told the internet news site. The first of these, a flight test of Lockheed Martin’s proposed booster for the Pentagon’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense, is slated to take place later this month, and could determine the composition of the interceptor used for the ground-based defenses now being erected in Alaska and California. OBSTACLES IMPEDE U.S.-EUROPEAN COOPERATION Last summer, a White House diplomatic offensive yielded unprecedented support in Europe for the Bush administration’s missile defense plans. But a year later, this transatlantic cooperation has yet to achieve its full potential, Defense News reports in its October 6th issue. Despite several memorandums of understanding on missile defense in recent months between U.S. and European firms, no concrete contracts have as yet been signed – a fact attributable to impediments raised by current U.S. export control policy. On the European side, meanwhile, a lack of governmental funding – resulting both from divergent political priorities and from limited resources – has prevented expanded cooperation and technology sharing. The result, the trade newspaper reports, is a stalemate between the U.S. and Europe, one stemming from commercial disputes, gaps in technology-sharing, and a lack of priority investment. MIXED PROSPECTS FOR INTERNATIONAL MISSILE CODE Nearly a year after its inception, the Hague Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation has failed to provide an accurate accounting of international ballistic missile inventories, the October 3rd Global Security Newswire reports. When crafted last November, the nonproliferation effort was designed to slow development and deployment of ballistic missiles among member nations, as well as to impede assistance to foreign ballistic missile programs and increase international transparency. Yet only 20 of the 109 member nations have so far complied with a crucial component of the regime by submitting a required annual declaration detailing their respective ballistic missile capabilities. Despite this setback, the Newswire reports that American officials are optimistic about the Code’s future role in preventing missile proliferation, and are actively encouraging its expansion. Still, the Code faces significant impediments, since countries of proliferation concern -- like China and Pakistan -- have so far refused to join. |
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