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American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC
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MOSCOW’S ANSWER TO THE “INITIAL DEPLOYMENT” Russia, worried over the emerging U.S. missile defense system, has unveiled sophisticated new ballistic missile technologies designed to defeat foreign defenses, the Agence France Presse (February 20) reports. According to Yuriy Baluyevsky, deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff, a prototype of the maneuverable, “hypersonic” rocket – intended to “render any anti-missile system defenseless against an attack by Russia’s strategic forces” – was tested during large-scale maneuvers carried out by the Russian military this month. “We are against the creation of anti-missile systems which threaten Russia,” Baluyevsky told reporters, explaining the rationale for the development of this technology. At the same time, Moscow also appears to be mulling an anti-missile effort of its own. On a recent visit to the Plesetsk spaceport in Russia’s Arkhangelsk region, President Vladimir Putin told reporters that the country’s military experts were looking into the possibility of launching a new indigenous drive for comprehensive missile defense. But whether Russia actually goes ahead with such an plan, Putin said in comments related by the Prime-TASS news agency (February 18), would depend on what “other countries” do with regard to missile defense. SECURITY LAPSES JEOPARDIZE ISRAELI DEFENSES A national scandal is brewing in Israel over security breaches in the country’s missile defense programs. In an expose featured in its February 13th edition, the influential Ma’ariv newspaper has revealed that the advanced Arrow Theater Missile Defense system, as well as other components of Israel’s “Homa” national missile defense architecture, could be infected with a potentially fatal “Trojan horse” virus. Apparently, recent work on the system by the IBM Corporation has included collaboration between software engineers in the company’s Tel Aviv and Cairo branches, giving Egyptian programmers critical access to the “Motif” software that runs Israeli missile defenses. Officials in Jerusalem are now scrambling to find and eliminate software “bugs” that might have been planted as part of this collaboration, the Israeli daily reports. TEHRAN PLANS “SHAHAB-3” ENHANCEMENTS Iran is moving ahead with plans to upgrade its “Shahab-3” ballistic missile. According to Middle East Newsline (February 18), the effort – recently announced by acting Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan – is intended to expand the reach of the medium-range rocket, currently capable of traveling some 1,300 kilometers, to in excess of 1,600 kilometers. The upgrades are intended as a substitute for Iran’s development of the longer-range “Shahab-4” missile, which the Islamic Republic announced it was abandoning in November of last year. TAIWAN REAFFIRMS MISSILE DEFENSE COURSE Ahead of a crucial national referendum on responses to China’s missile build-up, the Taipei Times (February 18) reports that Taiwanese officials are making the case for greater missile defense capabilities. Speaking before the island nation’s parliamentary Defense Committee, Defense Minister Tang Yao-ming stressed that the PRC has already deployed about 500 multiple-warhead tactical ballistic missiles within striking distance of Taiwan and American bases in South Korea and Japan, and that that number is expected to exceed 600 by the year 2005. In response, Tang told legislators, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry is preparing a $15 billion special budget that will make possible the purchase of submarines, air defense vessels, and missile defense systems from the United States. These plans, he made clear, will not be affected by March 20th vote, irrespective of what approach toward relations with the PRC emerges from the referendum. U.S.-CANADA COOPERATION INCHES FORWARD As Washington and Ottawa move closer to an official accord on missile defense cooperation, negotiations have commenced between U.S. and Canadian officials over testing of a new, cooperative radar system. The High Frequency Surface Wave Radar, jointly developed by the U.S. Raytheon corporation and Defense Research and Development Canada, Canada’s official defense research branch, could be tested against a sea-launched short-range ballistic missile as early as this summer, Defense News (February 19) reports. The system, which employs high-frequency waves that allow it to detect and track airborne threats beyond the horizon, is far superior to conventional line-of-sight microwave radar, and the Canadian government is currently mulling a $525,000 contract to Raytheon for a portable version to be used in the summer trials. |
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