European Missile Defence to protect against West Asia threats

Washington, Jan 30 (UNI) A senior US military official has asserted that the US goal to have elements of a missile defence system based in Europe by 2011 is intended to protect American and allied assets against emerging hostile West Asian threats.

US Army Brigadier General Patrick O'Reilly, deputy director of the Missile Defence Agency, told an audience in Washington yesterday that the United States was already in discussions with Russia about US missile defence plans and that the Russians were welcome to participate broadly in the deployment programme. Russian defensive capability would be enhanced by Russia's participation, he said.

As reported in an official publication, he said sensors and interceptors destined for Europe were oriented toward ballistic missile launches from the West Asia and were not intended to counter Russian military assets.

In any case, O'Reilly said the 10 ground-based missile interceptors and a large X-Band radar that the United States would like to see deployed in Europe "would not negate their (Russia's) arsenal, and, it's not intended to" do so.

O'Reilly also said there had been a tremendous level of international interest in the missile defence programme in the past year as evidenced by 1,000 delegates who attended a recent conference on the subject in London.

Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom already are cooperating.

The Polish and Czech governments want to enter into discussions with the United States, and he predicted that formal talks would begin soon, perhaps within weeks or months.

The deputy director said the Polish government was interested in having the United States conduct technical surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of Polish missile defence participation.

Asked about the missile defence programmes ability to counter a possible threat from Chinese anti-satellite weapons, O'Reilly said the current system did not have a mandate for that but if the Missile Defense Agency were asked to undertake such a task it could do so.

O'Reilly said the United States has had "a string of successes" since 2000 when President George W Bush called for development of a layered, integrated missile defence programme to protect the United States, its forces around the world and its allies.

He said there had been 14 (out of 15) successful flight tests with the most recent one occurring on January 26 when a missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range at Barking Sands in Hawaii against a target from a barge as part of the Terminal High Altitude Defence programme.

''We had a very successful intercept (against a Scud-like ballistic missile); it hit (inside earth's atmosphere) right where we aimed the kill vehicle to hit,'' he said.

UNI