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Earlier this week, we blogged about the impact Russia’s invasion of Georgia had on missile defense negotiations between Poland and the U.S.

There was friction between President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk over whether to allow the U.S. to install missile interceptors in Poland. 

However, recent hostilities in Eastern Europe put negotiations on a fast track. On August 11, the Polish government dismissed Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczkowski, and yesterday, Poland and the U.S. reached an agreement on the missile interceptors.

According to the Associated Press, Russia is “infuriated” about the deal. Tusk reportedly said that NATO “would be too slow” to respond to a threat and opted to work directly with the U.S. to protect the country against possible attack by Russia.
 
The U.S. and the Czech Republic reached a radar installation agreement last month.
 
(Source: AP - Photo source: AP/Alik Keplicz)

Over the weekend Heritage’s Jim Carafano attended a conference on missile defense challenges in the 21st century, which was sponsored by the Claremont Institute. One question was repeatedly asked, “Who would dare fire a ballistic missile at the United States?”

One surprising answer that came up again and again: Iran. Now, we all know that Iran has ballistic missiles and is trying to develop a nuclear weapon, but its missiles do not have the range to reach to the United States. In 1998, however, Iran test-fired a missile off a platform in the Caspian Sea — odd, considering Iranian missiles can reach likely targets in the Middle East from land-based sites. Iran has also held several missile tests, detonating the missiles at the apogee (that’s the highest point) of the missile’s flight path — again odd, given that missile tests are usually designed to see if missiles can fly all the way to their targets.

These strange experiments, however, could mean something, according to the scientists and scholars at the conference. If a missile were hid on an unassuming commercial cargo ship, it could sail near U.S. territory without ever being inspected by anyone. A short-range missile could be fired off a ship, and if Iran detonated a nuclear weapon high over the United States, it would produce an EMP-effect, a blast of electromagnetic waves that would short-circuit almost every electrical component on the ground below from the electric grid that powers the nation to the pumps that deliver water to our homes to electronic circuits that allow you to start car. This kind of attack would turn America into an 18th century barter economy in minutes. Is that what Iranian leaders meant when they said they could envision a world without America? We just don’t know.

With troubling developments like this, it is amazing that Americans are sanguine about the lack of adequate progress in building comprehensive missile defenses. Ironically, polls show again and again that most Americans want to be protected from ballistic missile threats. On the other hand, Congress has little interest in making the issue a priority.

But because lawmakers in Washington know Americans care about the issue, they pretend to take the issue seriously while trying to do as little as possible. Many in Congress would prefer to rely on negotiating or explaining threats away. While the Constitution clearly states “providing for the common defense” is Washington’s first duty, members of Congress think they know better.

Defense contractor Raytheon was awarded a $21.2 million Navy contract for components of the NATO SEASPARROW MK48 Guided Missile Vertical Launch System (GMVLS).
 
Raytheon will deliver 68 MK20 MOD 1 canisters and 156 spare frangible covers, which are critical components of the MK48 GMVLS.
 
“The MK48 GMVLS provides essential missile defense capabilities to protect and defend our international allies,” Raytheon Integrated defense Systems’ Charles “Tom” Bush, vice president of Seapower Capability Systems, said in a press release. “Raytheon is committed to providing reliable and effective system components that warfighters can depend on, the first time and every time.”
 
Raytheon will begin work at the company’s Seapower Capability Center in Portsmouth, R.I..
 
(Photo source: Raytheon)

A test missile launched Friday from Fort Greely, Alaska, was successfully tracked by sensors.

Contractor Boeing said in a statement that the test “demonstrated the most complex integration to date of radars required to support a missile intercept.” The missile launch, a test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, occurred Friday afternoon from the Kodiak Launch Complex.

In world of rogue governments bent on destruction, missile defense is more important now than ever. The success of this recent test launch is good news on many levels. The successful tracking demonstrated that America has made much-need progress in missile defense, and more work needs to be done. The ability to track and shoot down enemy missiles with precision is a crucial component of America’s defense strategy.

Source: Washington Examiner

Some of the most important decisions in the history of our nation have been made based on the wrong intelligence, and it’s not who you think.

Michael Dobbs recently penned a piece for the Washington Post titled, “Cool Crisis Management? It’s a Myth. Ask JFK,” about the insider view of President Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Dobbs recounts how vastly erroneous intelligence guided Kennedy’s decision-making process and deliberations. He suggests three important lessons learned from this crisis that can help guide future presidents:

1) The view from the oval office can be very limited (emphasis on very).

2) Some body always screws up (Maultsby pilots spy plane into Soviet territory).

3) Personality matters (restraint can be a good thing).

So theoretically, how can we apply these lessons to, say, a missile attack on the U.S.?

1) Since the view from the Oval Office can be very limited, the best offense is a good defense. If there are unknown-unknowns, we must be prepared for anything and everything.

2) If someone “screws up,” and it will happen, we should take the human element out of it. This may seem like a scary proposition, but if an effective tripartite missile defense system were operational, we would be able to employ tried and tested technology to defeat the threat.

3) Personality does matter, that’s why we need missile defense. No matter who the president is, missile defense would remove any adverse consequences of presidential decision-making, regardless of personality type.

The larger lesson here is that Kennedy had faulty info. He made decisions to the best of his ability, and got lucky. If it comes to another “missile crisis”, do you want to spin the wheel or go with the sure thing?

Missile defense is finally getting some boost. Those in Congress and the White House have finally begun to address this important issue. While think tanks such as The Heritage Foundation have consistently tried to bring this issue to the attention of influential Washington insiders and policymakers, missile defense has always suffered from a lack of fuel.

To bring you up to speed, we’ve compiled a list of the top five websites for missile defense information:

1) SpaceWar.com: This exiting, animated site provides up-to-date missile defense news that highlights key national and international developments.

2) Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance: This is your site for everything missile defense. Check out the complete video archive along with their interactive threat map. See the all-encompassing protection and testing sections for detailed systems profiles and testing schedule. Not to be overlooked is their public survey and advocacy sections for those who are heated over missile defense.

3) MissileThreat.com: This engaging website offers detailed resources including reports, suggested books and articles, extensive archives featuring analysis of recent news, and an interesting section on threats and scenarios. In addition, this site uniquely offers a historical chronology of missile defense along with treaties, laws and regulations for the legal aspects of missile defense.

4) Global Issues Web: Your go-to site for up-to-date missile defense news. This site offers a particularly long archive of past updates and analysis. In addition, see their Issues for news updates on a range of other interesting topics.

5) Missile Defense Agency: The military’s official website for the Missile Defense Agency. Under the News/Resources tab, the MDA provides: Congressional testimony, budgetary information, links to other governmental sites, and other interesting material for those wishing to learn about missile defense.

When President Reagan introduced his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in 1983, opponents and critics in Congress sarcastically referred to the program as “Star Wars.” Such degrading rhetoric was meant to conjure up notions of Dearth Vader and Han Solo, suggesting somehow that Reagan’s vision was as far-fetched as Luke Skywalker trying to destroy the Death Star with one well-placed shot.

All joking aside, comparisons between the Soviet Union and the “Dark Side” were actually quite astute. As if facing-off with “light-sabers,” Reagan described the mutual defense posture of the U.S. and Soviet Union as two westerners standing in a saloon aiming their guns at each other’s head — permanently. Reagan’s visionary solution was to invent a defensive weapon that could intercept nuclear weapons and destroy them as they emerged from their silos. He named this vision SDI.

In order to work toward his goal, Reagan announced that he was directing a comprehensive and intensive effort to define long-term R&D to achieve his goal. Without his long-term foresight, the “Brilliant Pebbles” program that was halted by the Clinton Administration in 1993 would never have materialized. In short, it is long-term efforts that enable short-term progress, a lesson that our leaders today should wisely heed.

For more than 200 years, providing for “the common defense” of the sovereign soil of the United States has been an unquestioned mandate delivered to our government by the Constitution. But with the advent of more sophisticated weaponry, as well as rise of politically motivated ridicule of defense systems to neutralize high-technology attack systems, the government has stepped away from its historical mandate at perhaps the most dangerous time in history.

In particular, the real and present danger of rogue nations and anti-western terrorist regimes utilizing long-range, sub-orbital missiles to attack the continental United States begs for a solution that was proposed 25 years ago by President Ronald Reagan. But that was abandoned in favor of a lower budget, limited substitute that has now left the window of our skies dangerously open for exploitation — potentially to our great harm.

Early next year, The Heritage Foundation will release a high-definition documentary that tells the story of the very real threat that hostile nations and rogue dictators now pose to every one of us. The truth is brutal: no matter where on the earth a missile is launched from, it would take 33 minutes or less to hit the U.S. target it was programmed to destroy. We must cause people to stop and face this horrible reality.

Aptly named, “33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age”, our documentary will be a key component in exposing our vulnerability to moms, dads and citizens across the country. The time has come to revive the strategic missile defense system that America uniquely can develop, maintain and employ for its own defense and the peace-loving world’s security.

Stay tuned to this blog for the latest news and commentary on missile defense, including photos, videos and other multimedia resources. The only way to secure America is to make a sustained commitment to national security by building robust strategic systems, including comprehensive missile defense. We firmly believe education is essential component to meeting that goal.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s decision to finalize an agreement with Prague in early July to station part of the “third site” anti-missile system there arrives at a critical point in the proliferation debate.

The news comes at the same time a former U.N. arms inspector is set to report that plans to build a nuclear weapon — compatible with Iran’s ballistic missile technology — could have fallen into the hand of the rogue regime and other dangerous actors.

The radar in the Czech Republic, together with the possible stationing of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland (negotiations are ongoing), will strengthen transatlantic security against the evolving Middle Eastern ballistic missile threat, allowing the United States to extend its own security umbrella to that of its European allies.

This is surely one reason why NATO vigorously endorsed the third site missile defense negotiations at its Bucharest Summit in April.

Cross-posted on The Foundry.