European Missile Defense Agreement Short on Fuel
The head of the Missile Defense Agency spoke publicly Tuesday for the first time about progress in the Poland missile defense talks. While Lt. Gen. Henry Obering urged that progress has been made, others remain skeptical, CongressDailyAM reported today.
The MDA chief stated that Poland and the Czech Republic have agreed to host U.S. missile defense systems. Obering continued that the two governments are reviewing the agreement and negotiating what they want in return. It’s this last part that has skeptics buzzing.
Polish officials are bargaining for military aid to boost their air defenses, including patriot missiles. It’s not clear what the Czechs desire. What is clear is that neither country looks willing to ratify the agreements until they get what they want.
Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), perennial missile defense skeptic and chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, doesn’t think the two countries will ratify the agreements until after U.S. elections in November. Congressional hostility is reflected in the fiscal 2006 budget, which cuts $372 million for the European sites. The Senate seems slightly more optimistic, fully funding the project in principle, but refusing to fund actual building of the sites until the interceptors have been “field tested.”
More bad news came from the MDA this week as it announced the “altering” of their plans to test the ground-based interceptors July 18. Due to technical reasons, this Friday’s test will be a simulation rather than an actual test-fire. While the simulation will likely yield important results, “simulations” are not going to bring the MDA closer to convincing Congress the interceptors really work.
Tags: Czech Republic, Ellen Tauscher, Henry Obering, Poland