President Doesn’t Understand Missile Threat, But Lawmakers Increasingly Comprehend It
President Obama’s expected cuts in ballistic missile defense (BMD) programs will stagger the effort to protect Americans from missile attacks, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) predicted.
Those budget cuts actually will amount to $1.85 billion in the upcoming fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2009, not the $1.4 billion that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he was proposing, Franks asserted at an American Foreign Policy Council seminar on Capitol Hill.
Those Gates cuts would slash an overall $8.9 billion fiscal 2009 outlay for various missile defense programs to roughly $7 billion, whacking away more than one of every five dollars to defend against enemy missiles, according to the congressman’s calculation.
“The administration is killing our missile defense system,” and also harming theater missile defense as well, said Franks, co-chairman of the congressional Missile Defense Caucus.
Gates, however, has argued that he is aiding some missile defense programs by adding money for them, such as increasing the budget for the sea-based Aegis missile defense program, including conversion of some Aegis ships to BMD capabilities, and for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system. Those programs are led by Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT].
Meanwhile, Gates is killing plans to buy any more Airborne Laser (ABL) missile defense aircraft, just when the speed-of-light ABL this year is about to prove its worth by shooting down a target missile for the first time. Gates also would buy no more interceptors for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system already emplaced in Alaska and California. And the European Missile Defense (EMD) system, a variant of the GMD, would be penniless. ABL, EMD and GMD are led by The Boeing Co. [BA].
If Congress were to pass the Obama budget unchanged, it would waste billions in defense outlays made thus far in those programs being cut, Franks said. ABL would become a research and development exercise, and there would be no further funding for the EMD.
As well, it is unclear how much funding there might be for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor, or KEI, program, which like the ABL would demolish enemy missiles when they are most vulnerable, in their “boost” phase just after launch, before the enemy weapon has a chance to emit multiple warheads or confusing decoys or chaff.
Ignoring Rising Threat
Obama’s proposed cuts in missile defense outlays are inexplicable in light of the rising missile threats posed by many nations, Franks said.
Iran, he noted, has launched a satellite, involving the same technology as constructing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
It’s clear that Iran wishes to deploy ICBMs, Franks said. And developing and deploying such as advanced weapon only makes sense, he said, if a nation is going to place a very advanced weapon on it: a nuclear bomb. It would make no sense to place a conventional bomb on an extremely expensive weapon such as an ICBM, he observed.
But a U.S. missile defense system, such as the EMD, would provide “deterrence,” showing Iran that it isn’t worth spending vast sums to develop missiles that the United States could defeat.
Iran as well is producing nuclear materials in more than 5,000 centrifuges, flouting global opinion despite sanctions imposed on the rogue nation for its action.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Israel should be wiped from the map, that Israel soon shall cease to exist, and that he envisions a world without the United States.
Further, Iran has launched a missile from a submerged submarine.
Meanwhile, North Korea has developed and tested nuclear weapons, and last month it launched a long-range missile that, once perfected, would be able to hit U.S. cities.
Franks termed the isolated communist dictatorship, led by Kim Jong IL, “a lunatic nation.”
China, too, is developing ever greater missile capabilities, including some 1,500 missiles aimed toward Taiwan.
Looking in dismay at all this, Franks said the Obama administration missile defense budget cuts are incomprehensible. “The administration simply underestimates the threat [posed by] rogue regimes in Iran and North Korea,” and by terrorist groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, which each have fired thousands of missiles into Israel, destroying buildings and killing civilians.
Those rogue regimes and terrorists wanted Obama to become president of the United States, because he doesn’t understand the threat they pose, Franks asserted.
Fortunately, Franks said, he is seeing movement in Congress to understand the rising missile threat seen around the world. Congress could decide to reject the proposed Obama BMD funding cuts, and instead could provide full funding for missile defense programs.
Franks also questioned whether Obama understands what is at stake in Europe, where the EMD would be hosted by the Czech Republic (radar) and Poland (interceptors in ground silos).
Leaders in those host nations “overcame tremendous opposition to ally with America” on the EMD issue, the congressman said. One leader there told Franks that “we don’t even care if it [the EMD] works — we want that connection to NATO,” the congressman related.