The Navy Clears for Action’ on Missile Defense CNO’s Reorganization Will Prove More Important than Intercept Test

(Washington, D.C.): While the media, pundits and critics of the so-called National Missile Defense program obsess about the results and implications of today’s scheduled intercept test, that event is sure to be overshadowed in the long-run by a Pentagon announce ment made earlier in the week: The U.S. Navy is “clearing the decks for action” on developing and deploying competent, global anti-missile systems.

To his credit, the outgoing Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jay Johnson has recognized that providing protection against ballistic missile attacks is a natural, valuable and increasingly necessary mission for his service.¹ Adm. Johnson also recognized that for the Navy to be able to perform this function, it had to square itself away — replacing fractured, uncoordinated and often conflicting divisions of labor with a consolidated and streamlined management structure under the command of a dynamic and visionary leader. Such an arrangement produced, under Admiral Hyman Rickover, the Nation’s extraordinarily successful nuclear Navy program.

Organizing and Staffing for Success

Toward this end, the CNO has created (clearly with the endorsement of his successor, Adm. Vernon Clark) — a new office in his immediate staff: the Assistant Chief of Naval Operations (ACNO) for Missile Defense. No less laudable is Adm. Johnson’s choice for the first occupant of this position, Rear Admiral Rod Rempt. For a decade, Adm. Rempt (who, as befits his new responsibilities, is expected to become Vice Admiral Rempt in short order) has been a prime-mover behind the Nation’s efforts to adapt its vast investment in AEGIS fleet air defense platforms for anti-missile purposes. The new ACNO’s promotion is especially welcome insofar as, until recently, he was planning to retire which would have been a terrible loss to the Navy and the country.

To be sure, given the Clinton-Gore Administration’s adamant determination to prevent Navy assets from providing timely and competent missile defenses for the American people, or for that matter to defend “theaters” other than that of North America — an opposition that mirrors, if not exceeds, that of the Russians, Chinese and other potential adversaries — the full benefits of this reorganization will only be realized by the next President. But by taking these long-lead-time steps now, Admiral Johnson has laid the groundwork for the next Administration to have options for an accelerated deployment of sea-based missile defenses that are virtually certain to be available more quickly, at a fraction of the cost and with greater strategic benefits (e.g., offering the ability to provide protection to U.S. forces and allies overseas) than the ground-based alternative Mr. Clinton professes to favor.²

The Bottom Line

Today’s test is, of course, not an inconsequential event. If it successfully intercepts the target missile, however, it will be but the third out of nineteen planned experiments. And critics have already sought to minimize the political boost that might flow from such an outcome by claiming that the test was rigged or otherwise made less challenging/realistic.

On the other hand, if the test proves to be another “incomplete success,” opponents of defending America against missile attacks will wrongly overstate its significance as evidence that the technology either cannot be made to work or, at least, is insufficiently mature to justify going forward with deployment decisions.

The fact is that, either way, the right response will be to accelerate the effort to bring anti- missile technology to fruition as required by the Missile Defense Act of 1999, which Mr. Clinton signed into law last August — namely “as soon as technologically possible.” Fulfilling that legal obligation means taking the fullest possible advantage of every available shortcut, including those that may finally become available thanks to Admiral Johnson’s courageous vision and leadership and Admiral Rempt’s actualization of the potential they have created for a near-term, militarily valuable and cost-effective global missile defense.

¹For more on Adm. Johnson’s visionary leadership in this area, see the Center’s Decision Brief entitled The Nation’s Top Sailor Endorses a Near-term Approach to Missile Defense: The Aegis Option’ (No. 00-D 18, 28 February 2000).

²For additional details on the “AEGIS Option,” see How to Share’ U.S. Missile Defense Protection: Deploy Sea-Based Anti- Missile Systems (No. 00-D 53, 1 June 2000) and Sea-Based Missile Defenses – For the Allies, for the U.S. (No. 00-D 52, 30 May 2000).