July 21, 2005 :: AP :: News
Lt. General Henry A. Obering III, director of the Missile Defense Agency, has expressed concern about the threat of short-range ballistic missiles launched from ships off the U.S. coast. Obering discussed the possibility of an enemy carrying a Scud or similar missile to within a few hundred miles of the U.S. coastline before launching it.
Most worrisome is the proliferation of Scud-type missiles throughout the world, many of which have ranges of up to 500 km. “We expect to be surprised,” said Obering, noting the unconventional nature of terrorist attacks. MDA spokesman Rick Lehner is also cited as saying that some $20 million is in next year’s defense budget to study the threat.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has noted the threat from ship-launched missiles on a number of occasions. General Obering’s comments are quite welcome, and raise the possibility of a significantly expanded missile defense effort capable of dealing with such attacks. The ground-based missile defense architecture currently being deployed in Alaska and California cannot do so.
Update: July 22: The U.S. is expanding its missile defense system to address potential threats from China and the Middle East, reports The Washington Post. Lt. Gen. Obering is quoted as saying that, in order to track and destroy incoming strikes from the Middle East, the U.S. is upgrading radars in Britain and surveying four European countries for a new site to deploy interceptor missiles. In addition, the Pentagon is cooperating with Japan and other Asian nations to address the growing threat from China’s short-range ballistic missiles in the region, while also developing the means to counter an attack by China’s long-range missiles.
“We have a better than zero chance of successfully intercepting, I believe, an inbound warhead,” Obering said, referring to a scenario of a “rogue state” attack by a state such as North Korea. “That confidence will improve over time.”
Addressing concerns that the U.S. is “rushing to deploy” its missile defense system, Obering stated that he would rather grapple with the problems of simultaneously testing and fielding the system than face the risk of being unprepared for an attack: “If we were attacked, the questions would have been: Why didn’t you get it out there, why didn’t you connect the dots?”
(Article)» July 22, 2005: Washington Post: Obering: missile defenses could significantly expand to counter Chinese, Mideast threats
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