An additional, mobile radar that could operate in a nation such as Turkey might be added to the fixed-site radar envisioned for installation in the Czech Republic and the interceptor ground silos planned for Poland, according to Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA).
Under current plans, “We have a forward-deployment radar somewhere in the far Southeastern Europe,” in addition to the permanent Czech-emplaced radar, he said.
That extra, mobile radar would fill in some gaps in radar coverage, he said. “We have time to work that,” he added.
Those components all would be part of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense missile shield that the United States wishes to erect to guard Europe and U.S. troops there from enemy missiles fired from Middle Eastern nations such as Iran. He said he is optimistic that the Czechs and Poles will grant permission for installation of the GMD system.
Also, Obering hailed progress in the Airborne Laser (ABL) development program, saying every component of the missile defense shield has been shown to work separately, so that the task now is just to get the components working together, heading to a test shooting down a target missile in the middle of next year.
Obering asked why Iran is developing long-range missiles capable of striking European cities, when Iran “already demonstrated capabilities beyond what they would need in a regional fight with Israel.”
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be wiped from the map.
While some U.S. analysts estimate Iran won’t have long-range missiles until 2015, Obering displayed a slide showing that Iran may already have a long-range missile, the SLV, with an estimated deployment of last year; the Iranian BM-25 is seen having an initial operating capability sometime this year; and Iran now is projected to field a true ICBM in the 2010 to 2015 time frame, or as soon as two years from now.
As well, Iran obstinately has refused to halt nuclear materials production, saying it is needed for peaceful electrical power generation. But Russia has given Iran enough nuclear materials for that purpose. Western nations and the United Nations are pressing Iran to abandon its nuclear production work, fearing the materials would be used to build nuclear weapons that might be mounted on missiles aimed at Europe.