Missile defense system ready for operation

NY Times:

After a successful test last week, the tracking radars and interceptor rockets of a new American missile defense system can be turned on at any time to respond to an emerging crisis in Asia, senior military officers said Tuesday.

Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., the senior commander for defense of United States territory, said that the antimissile system could guard against the risk of ballistic missile attack from North Korea even while development continues on a series of radars in California and the Pacific Ocean and on interceptor missiles in Alaska and California.

While the new system is limited, it is the most extensive anti-ballistic missile system the Pentagon has fielded since the Safeguard ABM system near Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota was briefly operated, starting in 1975. Congress immediately voted to shut it down, and it operated for only a few months.

“We can bring missiles up or take them down as need be so that they can continue doing the testing,” said General Renuart, commander of the military’s Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs. But, he added, “I’m fully confident that we have all of the pieces in place that, if the nation needed to, we could respond.”

...

The general said the next test, which is expected in the first half of 2008, would include countermeasures to gauge the interceptor’s ability to differentiate between the real warhead and decoys. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are scheduled to meet up in Moscow later this month for joint talks with their counterparts on Russia’s objections to American proposals for missile defense in Central Europe. American plans call for 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic to defend against a possible missile attack from Iran.

...
In a multi layered missile defense system launch phase defenses would eliminate the risk of a decoy permitting the missile to get through the shield. These would probably be sea based systems, although Japan or South Korea could also use launch phase missile defense for a threat from North Korea. It is not clear whether such systems could be used against Iran unless some were placed along its inland borders.

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