Rumsfeld: Rogue State has Test-Launched Ship-Based Missile
October 21, 2001 :: Department of Defense :: News
During a press conference held in Russia during his visit there, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stated that a “rogue state” had successfully tested the shipboard launch of a ballistic missile. “A weapon of mass destruction can be delivered over intercontinental range by a ballistic missile that has less than intercontinental range,” said Rumsfeld. One technique “is to put it on a ship, peel back the cover, use a transporter-erector-launcher, and fire it from a distance shorter than ICBM range. That has been done.”
Rumsfeld did not elaborate, commenting: “I’m calculating in my mind what is classified and what is not.”
But he was quite clear that “a rogue state has done that… They have fired a ballistic missile from a ship simply by peeling back the top, erecting it, firing it off, launching it a good distance, and covering it back up and moving the ship away.”
Rumsfeld also responded to a journalist’s question about chemical or biological missile warheads that, “Yes, there is proof that rogue states have demonstrated the use of chemical weapons on ballistic missiles.”
Rumsfeld did not identify what countries were involved in these programs, but noted that within the admittedly “imperfect phrase” ‘rogue states’, “certainly you would include in that category North Korea and Iraq and Iran and Libya—and North Korea.” (More »»»)
» October 24, 2002: Wolfowitz too speaks of ship launched missile threat
» More stories on: Iran, Libya, North Korea, Proliferation, Ship-Launched Threat, Testing - Foreign
Relation of Missile Defenses to China
September 4, 2001 :: The White House :: News
A release by the Press Secretary describes the relation of future missile defense programs to China, and efforts to assure Chinese concerns about US systems. The statement would seem to indicate some ambiguity in America’s relation to the communist country. While stating that “the U.S. missile defense program does not threaten China but seeks to counter limited missile threats from rogue states and the danger of accidental or unauthorized launches,” it goes on to speak of disappoval of China’s “expansion of their nuclear ballistic missile force” and their overall military expansion and modernization “initiated years” before US missile defense efforts, as well as expressing “concern” about “the export of Chinese missile technology,” and “the Chinese buildup of short-range ballistic missiles,” referring to buildup near Taiwan.
Thus, while “only those foreign parties with hostile intent toward the United States have grounds to fear U.S. missile defense,” one has to wonder whether China is among those with “hostile intent toward the United States.” (Article, Link)
» More stories on: China, Policy, Proliferation
