The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, concerned about a potential threat from Iran, plans to recommend in coming months a European site to host the first ground-based interceptor missiles outside the US, the head of the agency said on Tuesday.
Poland, the Czech Republic and Britain have been named by the agency as possible candidates to help bolster a US missile-defense shield against any missiles shot from the Middle East.
The initial configuration of the ground-based leg of the system, put together by Boeing Co, is aimed at thwarting ballistic missiles fired from North Korea.
In the next several months, "we will have a recommendation with respect to sites and alternative sites" in Europe, Air Force Lieutenant-General Henry Obering told reporters after a speech to an annual missile-defense conference in Huntsville, Alabama.
But he said he did not know when to expect higher-ups to choose the so-called third site, which would join Vandenberg Air Force base in California and Ft. Greely, Alaska, as home to silos housing US interceptor missiles.
The ultimate choice largely may reflect political trade-offs based on the kind of deals Poland or the Czech Republic are willing to strike with the Pentagon, outside experts said.
The Times yesterday reported that the Pentagon was making inquiries as to whether Britain would allow the US to set up in the country.
American defense planners are inquiring whether the British government would accept the interceptor missiles and radar, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed British officials.
The US preferred to put its European base in either Poland or the Czech Republic, but has turned to Britain because of increasing opposition to the idea in the two central European countries.
"A few weeks ago it looked like we were out of the woods on this one," an unnamed senior British source was quoted as saying.
"That has changed because Central Europe no longer looks like such an easy option," he said.
Obering said the US planned to install 10 ground-based interceptors at the projected European site by the end of 2011. By then, up to a total of 43 interceptors are due to have been installed in Alaska and California, he said.
Asked to describe the selection criteria, he spoke of optimizing protection for both the US and its European allies from any Middle Eastern warheads.
The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency has begun working with Israel to help find ways to counter enemy rockets, Obering told reporters.
He acknowledged some European allies had raised concerns about where the debris might fall from any missile shot down over Europe.
"I can tell you that our experience indicates that that is not something that needs to cause any kind of major alarm," he said, referring to what he described as the near total destruction of any missile payloads when slammed into by the interceptor missile's "kill vehicle."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not