Missile Defense Briefing Report: No. 292

A ROLE FOR SPAIN IN NATO'S BMD SHIELD
The government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in Madrid is poised to assume a role in NATO's emerging missile defense capability, Defense News reports in its October 5th edition. Officials from NATO, Spain and the U.S. have announced an agreement to add a sea-based component to Europe's evolving anti-missile architecture. The maritime leg would complement the ground-based missile defense systems slated to be located in Poland and Romania. As part of this effort, Spain will provide access to the Rota Naval base for four U.S. AEGIS ships tasked with patrolling the eastern Mediterranean. Additionally, according to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the vessels will also participate in other naval exercise in the region.

ADMINISTRATION RESISTS RUSSIAN DEMANDS ON BMD... SORT OF
The U.S. is not willing to compromise its planned European Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) to assuage Russian concerns, the Obama administration's top arms control official has said. In remarks at a missile defense conference put on by the Atlantic Council on October 18th, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Ellen Tauscher outlined the current status of the transatlantic initiative - and highlighted that, despite Russia’s forceful requests to provide legal guarantees that a European system will not target Russian missiles, the U.S. "cannot provide legally binding commitments, nor can we agree to limitations on missile defenses, which must necessarily keep pace with the evolution of the threat." At the same time, however, Tauscher took pains to make clear that the anti-missile system being built by Washington and its allies in NATO is inherently insufficient to defend against Russia's arsenal. The U.S.-led system “has no capability to counter Russian strategic forces, given their location, numbers and advanced technology... This is true of phases 3 and 4, as well as 1 and 2,” she explained.

IDF READIES MAGIC WAND
Israel’s Iron Dome system has enjoyed considerable success against short-range rockets since its deployment several months ago. According to Yediot Ahronot (October 26), the Israeli military is now seeking to augment these capabilities with protection against more sophisticated rockets. Its technology of choice in doing so is the "Magic Wand," an all-weather anti-missile array now in development that will, once operational, be capable of intercepting the longer range rockets possessed by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. As envisioned, "Magic Wand" will be integrated into the country's existing missile defense architecture at a cost of some $1 million apiece, providing added protection to Israel's "soft belly": the densely populated urban centers in the middle of the country that are within striking distance of the more advanced capabilities being fielded by terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.

DPRK AIDS IRAN WEAPONS PROGRAMS
Circumstantial evidence of a proliferation partnership between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has circulated for years, but the Korea Times, in its November 13th edition, has provided some of the strongest proof to date that Pyongyang is helping Tehran with its ballistic missile and nuclear capability. The Seoul paper, citing an unnamed North Korean source, reports that “hundreds of North Korean nuclear and missile engineers and scientists have been working at more than 10 sites (in Iran), including Natanz and Qom.” Reportedly, the North Korean experts now operating in Iran are from the DPRK's "Room 99," a bureau thought to proliferate sensitive technology.

THE ADMINISTRATION’S INDECENT PROPOSAL
The Obama administration continues to struggle to find a way to quell the Kremlin’s fears that interceptors to be placed in Europe will not target Russian missiles. The latest initiative by the White House, theWashington Times (November 16) reports, appears to be a proposal floated by Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher to share the burnout velocity of U.S. SM-3 interceptors with Russian officials - a move intended to prove that the missiles are not capable of reaching the speeds required to hit Russian ICBMs. Critics on Capitol Hill, however, have been quick to point out that sharing telemetry with the Russians would directly contradict the terms of the New START agreed to by Washington and Moscow late last year.