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American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC
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CRUISE MISSILE DEFENSE COMES OF AGE Over the past year, Pentagon officials have started paying increased attention to the threat posed by cruise missiles. Now, as a federal deadline draws closer, cruise missile defense appears to have taken center stage on the Defense Department’s agenda. Inside The Army (December 15) reports that – ahead of the February deadline for its FY 2005 budget request – the Pentagon is considering ways to accelerate an initial deployment of cruise missile defenses. Options include trimming funds from the “Penetrator” Tactical Missile System and current Balkans operations to finance a $1.19 billion boost in research and development of anti-cruise missile technologies. Such funding would allow an initial cruise missile defense to be fielded by 2008, according to the trade paper. JAPAN’S ROAD TO NMD Japan has officially decided in favor of a national missile defense system as a strategic response to mounting regional threats. The December 19th governmental directive, covered widely in both the Japanese and international press, caps months of internal deliberations in Tokyo over the scope and nature of an answer to growing ballistic missile dangers, most prominently from North Korea. Under the plan, the Japanese government will begin deploying a two-tiered sea- and land-based system built around the Aegis ship warfare system and the U.S. PAC-3 in 2007, at an estimated total cost of some $10 billion. Announcing the landmark decision, Japanese Defense Agency Director Shiguru Ishiba stressed that “missile defense is the only way to protect lives and property of the Japanese people from the threat of ballistic missiles.” A STRIDE FORWARD FOR SEA-BASED DEFENSE... The Pentagon is marking the success of its most recent sea-based missile defense test. Carried out off the coast of Hawaii on December 11th, the trial served to evaluate the tracking capabilities of the Navy’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System and the performance of its SM-3 interceptor missile, the Missile Defense Agency said in a subsequent press release. As part of the flight test, an “Aries” medium-range target missile fired from the Pacific Missile Test Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii was detected and tracked by an the USS Russell Aegis cruiser, and subsequently neutralized by an interceptor from the USS Lake Erie. Commenting on the test, Missile Defense Agency spokesman Cris Taylor dubbed it “the next step in integrating Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense” into the Bush administration’s emerging national missile defense architecture. ...AND ANOTHER BULLSEYE FOR THE ARROW Israel’s Arrow Theater Missile Defense System, meanwhile, has also successfully passed its most recent test. The Jerusalem Post reports that a high-altitude intercept of a “Black Sparrow” target missile was carried out by the advanced system at the Palmachim Air Base south of Tel Aviv on December 16th. The test, the eleventh for the jointly-developed U.S.-Israeli program, “is a major step in the system[’s] operational improvements to deal with incoming ballistic missile threats,” the Israeli Defense Ministry announced in an official statement following the intercept. “TOPOL-M” TOPS MOSCOW’S MISSILE AGENDA As part of its ongoing strategic force modernization, Russia has ramped up production of its “Topol-M” ICBM, the Associated Press (December 22) reports. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov inaugurated a new unit of the advanced missiles, which have an estimated range of over 6,000 miles, in the Saratov region on December 21st. Introduction of a road-mobile variant of the missile – lauded as the most advanced missile in the world – is slated for next year. Plans for equipping the single-warhead missiles with multiple warhead technology are also reportedly on the table. IRAN OUTLINES ROCKET PLANS In the wake of a self-imposed curb on ballistic missile development this November, Iran has gone public with plans for its strategic arsenal. In a statement carried by the Agence France Presse on December 17th, Hossein Dehqan, a deputy to Iranian Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani, reiterated that his country “does not have any plan to build a Shahab-4.” However, Dehqan confirmed that the Islamic Republic is currently in the process of “optimising” the “Shahab-3” – a medium-range rocket already estimated to be capable of carrying a one-ton warhead some 1,300 kilometers. Possible upgrades to the missile could include expansions of its range, payload capacity or its accuracy. |
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