Washington formally inaugurated the ”Son of Star Wars” anti-missile shield yesterday, inviting Britain and other allies to subscribe to the controversial new vision of strategic defence.
It is expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming decades, but it appeared yesterday that the US hopes to defray part of the cost by enlisting its allies in the project.
The White House expects to spend $7,4-billion on the researching and developing the system in each of the next two years. Critics say the money should be spent on the war on terror.
The announcement was seen as further evidence of Washington’s focus on the threat posed by ballistic missile proliferation, specifically in North Korea.
The project will be in the project stage for at least two years.
President George Bush said it was intended to ”protect our citizens against what is perhaps the greatest danger of all – catastrophic harm that may result from hostile states or terrorist groups armed with weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them”.
A former assistant secretary of state for non-proliferation, Robert Einhorn, said: ”The belief of this administration is that missile proliferation is occuring faster than it was thought and that new and additional countries are acquiring these missiles some of which are not as easy to deter as the Soviet Union was, and so to be prudent we need a defensive capability.
”Whether the threat materialises as quickly as they expect is an issue. They are predicting a rather rapid advance of this problem of ballistic missile proliferation …
”One has to look at it in terms of tradeoffs, how effective is it, and how serious is the threat.”
In London the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, told MPs that the US had requested the use of the Fylingdales early warning radar on the North York Moors.
He said in a written statement that while there was no immediate significant threat to Britain from ballistic missiles, ”intentions can change quickly and the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles is continuing”.
The government had not decided how to respond and was keen that a decision would be ”informed by public and parliamentary discussion”.
But he made it clear that the government would respond positively after a Commons debate in the new year.
He said: ”An upgraded Fylingdales radar would be a key building block in the extension of missile defence to Europe, should we and other European allies so desire.”
The US said it would be prepared to ”extend missile defence coverage and make missile defence capabilities available to the UK … subject to agreement on appropriate political and financial arrangements”. Hoon said the project offered opportunities for British hi-tech companies.
Opponents of the project, including many senior Whitehall officials, believe it is unnecessary – even dangerous in that it could fuel an arms race – expensive – it is estimated to cost Britain up to £10bn – and technologically unproved.
Malcolm Savidge, a Labour backbencher whose motion expressing concern at the project attracted the support of nearly 300 MPs, said yesterday that it undermined prospects for progressive disarmament.
”It makes one wonder whether a PR exercise has been choreographed jointly by Washington and Whitehall, rather than having a democratic debate.”.
Last week the former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle said he feared the government was ”acting as a satellite to the US in this instance rather than an ally without any reference to anybody”.
The US has made a similar request to the Danish government to upgrade the early warning radar at Thule in Greenland.
The initial stages of the plan are modest – far less ambitious in their scope than the 1983 variant of Star Wars pursued by Ronald Reagan.
But it remains a considerable expansion of the ground-based programme pursued by President Bill Clinton by ordering research and testing of sea-based and space-based systems.
The plan involves an initial 10 land-based interceptor missiles at Fort Greely, Alaska, by 2004, essentially as a test facility, and an additional 10 land-based interceptors by 2005, Pentagon officials said.
Eventually it is expected to spread in layers, with interceptor missiles based at sea, and in modified Boeing 747 aircraft.
But even the relatively small-scale Alaska project has been questioned by defence experts.
Three of the eight tests conducted so far have failed, including one last week, when an interceptor rocket did not separate from its booster rocket as planned.
Rumsfeld was forced to insist yesterday that the system was not purely symbolic, but he acknowledged that it will be put in place before it is fully developed.
But he said it would be a deterrent effect: ”The other countries will know what we are capable of.” – Guardian Unlimited Â