The Hindu : International : U.S. move may provoke new arms race

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Wednesday, Aug 04, 2004

International

International

U.S. move may provoke new arms race

By Richard Norton-Taylor

LONDON, AUG. 3. Scarcely noticed, the U.S. last month deployed its first ground-based missile interceptor at Fort Greely in Alaska. It was a significant step in the U.S. President, George W. Bush's ambitious and hugely expensive missile defence system — a project the Blair administration in the U.K. says it supports, but one that, in the view of its many critics, will provoke a new arms race leading to the weaponisation of space, a true ``Son of Star Wars'' with profound implications for the rest of the world.

'Misplaced priority'

Deployment of the interceptor ``marks the end of an era where we have not been able to defend our country against long-range ballistic missile attacks'', said Major General John Holly, programme director for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defence system. This has nothing to do with terrorists, repeatedly described by Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair as the greatest threat to the West. The Al-Qaeda network of terrorists may want to get their hands on biological or chemical weapons, or a dirty bomb, but they are unlikely to be able to launch a long-range intercontinental ballistic against the U.S., or anywhere else.

More interceptors

``This extraordinary emphasis on missile defence represents misplaced priorities,'' says the U.S. Union of Concerned Scientists. ``The administration's top priority should instead be combating the threat of nuclear terrorism.''

Up to five more interceptors are due to be deployed at Fort Greely by the end of this year. By the end of 2005, the U.S. plan is to deploy 10 ship-based intermediate-range interceptors, a sea-based tracking radar and an upgraded radar at Fylingdales in Yorkshire, in the north of England.

Mr. Bush wants to spend $10 billion on missile defence in 2005, an increase of nearly $1 billion over this year's expenditure on the system. His request has yet to be agreed by Congress, where there is a growing belief that the whole project is ideologically driven, a belief fuelled by widespread scepticism among Pentagon officials about whether it will work. That scepticism is not shared by their boss, Donald Rumsfeld, an enthusiastic supporter.

Mr. Rumsfeld is also a driving force behind U.S. plans for weapons in space, the next step in America's still-limited missile defence programme. He has talked about a threat from a ``space Pearl Harbor''. As little-noticed as the missile deployment at Fort Greely, his Missile Defence Agency has now earmarked nearly $70 million for Nfire — the acronym for the Near-Field Infrared Experiment.

Test satellites

This project, due to have been launched this year but delayed because of rumblings in Congress, involves a series of test satellites in low-Earth orbit carrying infrared sensors. Initially, the idea is to enable the U.S. military to distinguish between the rocket plume, or exhaust, of a missile fired by a potential enemy and the missile itself. But the system is also designed to carry a ``kinetic kill-vehicle'' that will intercept a missile after it has been tracked.

Nfire will in effect be the first space weapon. That is the warning in Fighting for Space, a paper written by the Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) to be published later this month.

— Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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