Success! A ground-based missile defense milestone
Decision Brief No. 06-D 43 2006-09-01
(Washington, D.C.): Today’s successful intercept of a simulated incoming ballistic missile by an operationally configured ground-based missile defense interceptor is a major milestone in the effort to realize President Ronald Reagan’s vision of an America protected against such offensive weapons. It comes at a moment when there are growing missile threats from Iran, North Korea, China and Russia and when critics in Congress and elsewhere doubt the readiness of our defenses.
The success of this test not only serves notice on friends and foes alike that the United States is no longer defenseless against ballistic missile attack. It also sets the stage for the realization of a far more comprehensive anti-missile shield than the relatively limited system currently being deployed in Alaska and California.
Listen to Secretary Rumsfeld
Shortly before today’s test, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited the missile defense site at Fort Greeley, Alaska. During a press availability on 27 August, the Pentagon chief described the evolution of the Nation’s anti-missile systems:
- As additional sensors and additional interceptors are put in, this system will evolve with greater capability in terms of the numbers of missiles we can handle as well as the directions of missiles. We’re working with our allies around the world in both Asia and Europe to those kinds of additional capabilities….
I have always believed that the way you get from where you are to where you want to be is you start. And you put something in the ground and you work with it and evolve it and change it and fix it and improve it and let all the people and critics who stand around and say, “Oh, you missed,” or “You didn’t get it,” or “You missed a deadline,” or whatever they want to do – and you just keep your head down and you get the job done and you arrive in the year 2006.
Never Mind
On 29 August, seven Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee led by Ranking Minority Member Rep. Ike Skelton wrote Secretary Rumsfeld about his remarks at Ft. Greeley. They took out of context his observation, in response to a journalist’s question, that he would like to see “a full end-to-end process at some point, where we actually put all the pieces together…- that just hasn’t happened.”
The legislators professed: “We support your call for an operationally realistic test of our current missile defense system to know the actual state of our capabilities.” They went on, however, to declare: “Unfortunately, after reviewing the Missile Defense Agency’s test schedule, we see no evidence of the comprehensive and realistic end-to-end test of the limited national defense system that [you] called for at Ft. Greeley.” They cited as proof the fact that this week’s test “will not actually seek to defeat an incoming target but simply to determine if the kill vehicle can recognize an incoming warhead.”
Well, today’s intercept would seem to have answered the Democratic representatives’ question: “When is such a test planned?” In fact, while the Pentagon’s plan for this test called for the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) to perform “sensor characterization and evaluation of endgame algorithms,” in the event, it worked so flawlessly that it actually did “defeat an incoming target.” In fact, it amounts to as comprehensive and realistic an end-to-end test as can be undertaken at this time – one which used virtually all of the missile defense sensors and component technologies currently available.
As Secretary Rumsfeld noted at Ft. Greeley, “We still have some more sensors that they’re putting in place; one in Japan this next week…And there will be other pieces that will come along.” But, given the emerging threats, it would be irresponsible to wait until all such sensors and other pieces of the optimal system mature and are available to put into place the best defenses we can.
Now, to Sea and Space
Toward that end, the Center for Security Policy applauds two of its esteemed associates – Amb. Henry Cooper (former Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization and a long-time member of the Center’s National Security Advisory Council) and Dr. Robert Pfaltzgraff (a member of the Center’s Academic Council) – for their op.ed. published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
In this essay, Drs. Cooper and Pfaltzgraff call attention to the results of an important five-year study by the Independent Working Group (IWG), in which they both participated. The IWG study shows how the necessary levels of missile defense effectiveness can be achieved at a reasonable cost by modifying the Navy’s Aegis fleet air defense system and deploying space-based assets for this purpose.
The Bottom Line
The Center commends all those in government, the military and industry who made today’s successful intercept possible and encourages them to redouble their efforts to ensure that the Nation has in place the fully capable, layered missile defense system it requires – before it needs it.
Mr. Gaffney is the host of Secure Freedom Radio, a nationally-syndicated radio program heard weeknights throughout the country. He is an associate author of highly acclaimed Shariah: The Threat to America and the publisher of over a dozen other books and monographs from the Center for Security Policy Press.
In April 1987, Mr. Gaffney was nominated by President Reagan to become the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, the senior position in the Defense Department with responsibility for policies involving U.S.-USSR relations, nuclear forces, arms control, missile defense policy and U.S.-European defense ties. He acted in that capacity for seven months during which time, he was the Chairman of the prestigious High Level Group, NATO’s senior politico-military committee. He also represented the Secretary of Defense in key U.S.-Soviet negotiations and ministerial meetings.
From August 1983 until November 1987, Mr. Gaffney was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under Assistant Secretary Richard Perle.
From February 1981 to August 1983, Mr. Gaffney was a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by the late Senator John Tower (R-Texas). And, in the latter 1970’s, Mr. Gaffney served as an aide to the late Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson (D-Washington) in the areas of defense and foreign policy.
Mr. Gaffney holds a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Gaffney’s leadership has been recognized by numerous organizations including: the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award (1987), the U.S. Business and Industry Council’s Defender of the National Interest Award (1994), the Navy League of the United States’ Alfred Thayer Mahan Literary Achievement Award (1999), and the Zionist Organization of America’s “Louis Brandeis Award” (2003), the Western Conservative Summit’s Stephen H. Long Award (2015), the Council for National Policy’s George Washington Military Leadership Award (2016) and the IMPACT Award from Ginni Thomas and United in Purpose (2017).
Mr. Gaffney was born in 1953 and resides in the Washington, D.C. area.
- The UN transforms itself into a world government - September 22, 2024
- Hezbollah is engaged in terrorism, not Israel - September 22, 2024
- Israel must seize the day - September 20, 2024