But Defense Measure Also Encourages Talks With Russians Over Possible Joint Radar

The pending Senate defense authorization bill leaves the European Missile Defense (EMD) program with just $51 million for the next fiscal year, which critics of the measure say means the protective shield against Iranian missiles can’t be built soon.

Senate committee action, which now moves to the Senate floor, comes after Iran launched a missile with a satellite that half an hour later was over the United States. Iran also defies world opinion by continuing to produce nuclear materials. And its newly reelected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel soon shall cease to exist, and that he envisions a world without the United States.

That $51 million token level of funding for the EMD is just what President Obama proposed in his budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2010, meaning there are no funds to begin EMD construction next year, and the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) also accepted the Obama funding levels that slash or eliminate many missile defense programs. (Please see full story in this issue.)

It isn’t that Obama sees no currently emerging threat in Iran. He does. Just last week, he deplored Iranian belligerence, terming the rogue state a danger. But Obama still voices hope that Iran can be persuaded to surrender its nuclear ambitions, a hope that some critics say is unfounded because Iran values atomic arms above all other goals.

Appearing at the White House with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama castigated Iran for its bellicose drive for nuclear arms, which Iran attempts to pass off as merely making fuel for nuclear electrical generators.

"Working with Germany, our other European partners, as well as Russia and China, we’re working to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capacity and unleashing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East," Obama said. "We will encourage Iran to take a path that respects international norms and leads to greater security and prosperity for the Iranian people."

But Obama’s budget plan doesn’t provide funds to begin building the EMD system, in case Iran refuses to abandon its nuclear and missile development programs.

And some SASC senators approved the Obama approach toward Tehran.

"On a policy basis, we did not change any policy on European Missile Defense, the so-called third site," from what Obama requested, said SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), responding to a question from Space & Missile Defense Report.

Russian leaders have objected fiercely to the EMD plan, in which the United States would install a radar in the Czech Republic and ground silos filled with interceptors in Poland. Moscow has even threatened to launch a missile attack to annihilate the EMD if the United States builds it.

At the same time, however, Russia has expressed interest in possibly having some of its radar capability linked into the EMD.

Levin said the SASC picked up on that opening.

Working With Russia?

The authorization bill "also encourages the exploration of a possible cooperation between Russia and NATO and the United States on information which could be obtained through very well-located Russian radars," Levin explained.

Those Russian radars could be "located in a way that any effort by Iran to have long-range missiles, for instance, could be very quickly noted by Russian radars, and [if] we could work out something with Russia, it would be, number one, gaining valuable … information in the event Iran ever moves in that direction, very unwisely, but in case they did [launch missiles]. If we were able to work out something with Russia on use of that information, it would be a very powerful statement to Iran that Russia, NATO and the West view Iran moving toward long-range missiles and possible nuclear weapons as a threat."

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the ranking SASC Republican, said the SASC didn’t wish to push forward with the EMD program when the Obama administration isn’t even sure that it wants to execute the years-old U.S. plan to locate the EMD on Czech and Polish soil.

"As far as the Czech and Polish missile defense situation is concerned, the committee tried not to influence that particular policy, because in testimony before the Senate, [Deputy Secretary of Defense William] Lynn and others — and I think the president — stated that they have not made a decision on whether to go forward with missile defense systems located in … the Czech Republic and Poland," McCain replied. (Please see Space & Missile Defense Report, Monday, June 22, 2009.)

"So," McCain continued, "there may be more debate on the [Senate] floor on that. I happen to be a supporter of continuing with that" Czech-Polish siting strategy. "We tried not to disturb that situation, at least until the administration is coming down to a decision on the Czech and Polish missile defense situation."

Some senators have expressed dismay that Obama would abandon the EMD siting plan, after Czech and Polish leaders showed great political courage in agreeing to provide sites for EMD facilities despite overwhelming opposition of their citizens to the EMD plan.

As well, many senators and House members have asked how Obama can indefinitely delay beginning the multi-year construction of the EMD, when Iran is accelerating its medium- and long-range missile capabilities. It already wields missiles that can strike Israel and Europe. By orbiting a satellite, Iran proved it has mastered the multi-stage technology to build an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM able to strike the United States.

Intelligence estimates vary as to when Iran will build nuclear weapons and miniaturize them so they could fit atop missiles, ranging from 2015, to 2013, to next year. Intel estimates, however, can be wrong. U.S. intelligence estimated it would be years before Iran developed technology required for a long-range missile, only to see Iran launch the satellite days later.