http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/u-s-extends-missile-buildup-from-poland-and-taiwan-to-persian-gulf
Stop NATO
February 3, 2010
U.S. Extends Missile Buildup From Poland And Taiwan To Persian Gulf
Rick Rozoff
On January 20 Poland's Defense Ministry revealed that a U.S. Patriot missile
battery previously scheduled to be stationed near the nation's capital will
instead be deployed to a Baltic Sea location 35 miles from Russian territory;
on January 29 the White House approved the transfer of 114 Patriot missiles to
Taiwan as part of a $6.5 billion arms package that also includes eight warships
the receiving nation plans to upgrade for the Aegis Combat System with the
capacity for carrying Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) ship-based anti-ballistic
missiles.
On January 22 head of the Pentagon's Central Command General David Petraeus
told an audience at the private Institute for the Study of War that two
warships equipped with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System "are in the
Gulf at all times now." [1] A news report on the same day remarked "That
statement - along with the stationing of other U.S. air defense assets in the
region - sends a strong signal to Iran...." [2]
The New York Times reported on January 30 that the U.S. was expediting the
deployment of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) interceptor missiles to
four Persian Gulf nations - Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates
- thereby paralleling the combination of sea-based Aegis and land-based Patriot
missiles intended for the Taiwan Strait aimed at China and in the Baltic Sea
targeting Russia. The Gulf deployments are intended for use against Iran.
"One senior military officer said that General Petraeus had started talking
openly about the Patriot deployments about a month ago, when it became
increasingly clear that international efforts toward imposing sanctions against
Iran faced hurdles...." [3]
On February 1 The Times of London commented on the coordinated interceptor
missile plans: "Tensions in the Gulf between the US and Iran are set to rise
further after it emerged that American-made anti-missile systems are to be
deployed to Washington's Arab allies in the region.
"The Obama Administration said yesterday that it was speeding up arms sales to
a number of states and that it had also deployed warships in the Gulf...."
As in the Baltic Sea and Taiwan, PAC-3 missiles - "dedicated almost entirely to
the anti-ballistic missile mission" [4] and which soon will have their
capability increased by 50% with an upgrade called Missile Segment Enhancement
- will be used for short- to medium-range and Aegis class warships for medium
to long-range missile interceptions. The basic ingredients of a multilayered
theater missile shield.
Last May an American news source waxed enthusiastic over Aegis capabilities:
"The AEGIS combat system, at its heart, is a computer controlled combat and
data system. It can simultaneously launch strikes against missiles or other
targets in the air, and on land and sea, either surface or underwater.
"AEGIS is the most capable missile launch system the Navy has ever put to sea.
In any weather, including full cyclones, AEGIS can attack multiple targets
underwater, and from wave top to directly overhead, at all speeds from subsonic
to supersonic." [5]
Its Standard Missile-3, already in the Persian Gulf and soon to be permanently
based in the Baltic, South China, Mediterranean and Black Seas, has an
acknowledged range of 500 kilometers but can be enhanced for longer distances
and was used by the U.S. to destroy a satellite 130 miles above the Pacific
Ocean in February of 2008 in a test inspected by Admiral Michael Mullen,
chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. "The satellite was unlike any
target the system was designed to go after....The satellite was in orbit rather
than on a ballistic trajectory. Also, the satellite was traveling at incredible
speeds." [6]
As to the Patriot missile defense system, it is the only component of the U.S.
(and allied) global interceptor project to be used in combat, both times in
full-fledged wars.
Patriots were employed in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 against Iraqi Scud
missiles and were based in Israel, not a formal belligerent in the war, and
Saudi Arabia, which was and which served as a base for a large percentage of
the 100,000 sorties by the U.S. and its allies in the air war over Kuwait and
Iraq.
The U.S. stationed and used Patriot missiles in Kuwait 2003 during the invasion
of Iraq and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization deployed three Patriot
batteries (and AWACS) to Turkey before the attack.
Unlike other, longer-range, elements of the layered missile shield system, the
Patriot has been proven an effective battlefield weapon. It is only defensive
in the sense that a shield was a means of defense for a sword-wielding warrior
or armor is for a battle tank. It is designed to protect an aggressor from
counterattack.
In commenting on the Pentagon's plans to move Patriot and SM-3 - and even
longer-range - missiles into the Persian Gulf, a newspaper in the region wrote
that "US anti-missile systems may be installed in Bahrain to protect the
country against possible retaliatory attacks from Iran...." [7] A degree of
candor absent in the American press. One which reveals that the U.S. is
installing interceptor missiles in the Gulf as it did earlier in 1991 and 2003
to neutralize short- and medium-range missiles fired in response to acts or
threats of aggression.
One of the false rationales for the expanded missile deployments dutifully
retailed by major American and British newspapers of late is that they are
intended in part to prevent rather than encourage attacks on Iran by Israel.
That argument is contrary to logic and fact alike. By assuring the second
nation and Gulf states Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia which host U.S.
infantry, air and naval forces that they are invulnerable to retaliation after
attacks on Iran is to increase the risk of unprovoked Israeli and U.S. assaults.
Compared to 1991 and 2003, though, the groundwork for a much broader conflict
is being laid, one which will include interceptor missiles several stages more
advanced than the Patriot and SM-3.
Last August it was reported that "Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. [United Arab
Emirates]...want a wide range of military platforms, with particular interest
in missile defense systems such as the U.S. Theater High Altitude Air Defense
system [THAAD]. Approval was recently given for the Pentagon to sell this to
the U.A.E., THAAD's first foreign customer." [8]
THAAD picks up where the SM-3 (which is being transitioned for ground
deployment in Europe and the Middle East as part of new - post-September 17,
2009 - U.S. and NATO interceptor missile plans) leaves off and after THAAD
comes the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system to intercept missiles in space
(the exoatmosphere).
On January 31 the U.S. Missile Defense Agency launched a ground-based
interceptor missile from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in what
proved to be an unsuccessful test.
Four days before a local newspaper wrote that "A missile-defense system test
set for Sunday at Vandenberg Air Force Base will involve a different scenario,
this time gauging how the system would react to an Iran-like attack, officials
said."
The report further detailed "a target weapon set to take off from the Kwajalein
Atoll, about 4,200 miles southwest of Vandenberg" and that "the launch will be
followed about 20 minutes later by a ground-based interceptor launched from an
underground silo on north Vandenberg." [9]
The last such test occurred in 2008 "when [a] target launched from Kodiak,
Alaska, was successfully hit by a Vandenberg interceptor." [10] Staging
long-range missile interception tests from Alaska, including from the Aleutian
Islands near Russia's eastern coast, are not limited to plans for Iran.
In mid-January head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency Lieutenant General
Patrick O'Reilly visited Fort Greely, Alaska, "the first line in America’s
missile defense" and home to ground-based midcourse missiles, and his comments
included: "In a time of war we would launch." [11] Missiles launched from Fort
Greely would have to pass over Russia, China or both to reach Iran,
incidentally.
News that the U.S. is to deploy a Patriot missile battery in Poland close to
its border led to Russia's ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin stating recently:
"Do they really think that we will calmly watch the location of a rocket
system, at a distance of 60 km from Kaliningrad?" [12] The deployment of
Standard Missile-3s, with several times the reach of the Patriot, on land and
sea in the same neighborhood will only makes matters more dangerous.
The official authorization of Patriot transfers to Taiwan - the missiles are
produced by Raytheon Company, whose former vice president of Government
Operations and Strategy William Lynn is now Deputy Secretary of Defense -
resulted in China's vice foreign minister, He Yafei, saying "We believe this
move endangers China's national security" [13] and to Luo Yuan, senior
researcher with the Academy of Military Science, adding "The US action gives
China a justified cause to increase its national defense expenditure, to
enhance the development and purchase of weapons, and to accelerate its
modernization process in national defense....China did nothing to threaten the
US, why should the US challenge our core strategic interests?" [14]
China and Russia, by not capitulating to U.S. and Western European pressure to
enforce further, even more onerous sanctions against Iran of the type that have
in recent years been followed by all-our war against other nations, have
frequently been chastised by U.S. leaders, with China lately being dressed down
by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, about whom it cannot be said as
President John Quincey Adams claimed of the early American republic that "she
goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy."
China has suspended military contacts with Washington and threatened sanctions
against American arms firms involved in the completion of the $6.5 billion deal
with Taiwan.
With the release of the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review which calls for a
record $708 billion in Pentagon spending next year, Bloomberg News ran a
feature titled "China, Iran Prompt U.S. Air-Sea Battle Plan in Strategy Review"
which stated "The U.S. military is drawing up a new air-sea battle plan in
response to threats such as China's persistent military build-up and Iran's
possession of advanced weapons." Pentagon chief Robert Gates was quoted as
alluding to - in an obvious reference to China - "the military modernization
programs of other countries" and of the Quadrennial Defense Review in general
that "This is truly a wartime QDR." [15]
"The budget underscored the administration's commitment to a 'robust defense
against emerging missile threats,' saying it would pay for use of increasingly
capable sea- and land-based missile interceptors and a range of sensors in
Europe." [16]
The blatant provocations against Russia and China of late last month are being
repeated against Iran.
The Times of London on February 1 reminded its readers that "The UAE and Saudi
Arabia have bought more than $25 billion of US arms in the past two years. Abu
Dhabi has bought $17 billion of US hardware since 2008, including Patriot
anti-missile systems, while the UAE as a whole recently bought 80 F16 jets."
It also recalled, even more ominously, that "The chairman of the US military's
Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen...said last month that the Pentagon
must have military options ready to counter Iran should Mr Obama call for
them." [17]
An integral part of plans to contain and confront Iran is the Pentagon buildup
in and near the Persian Gulf. Last year United Press International published a
report that "Middle Eastern countries are expected to spend more than $100
billion over the next five years....Most of the procurement will be carried out
by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Israel....The core of this
arms-buying spree will undoubtedly be the $20 billion U.S. package of weapons
systems over 10 years for the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council -
Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain." [18]
On January 27 in the United Arab Emirates "The UAE Armed Forces [began]
military training with the US Central Command (Centcom) along with armed forces
from other GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] and friendly countries." [19]
Last October and November the U.S. and Israel conducted their largest-ever
joint military exercise, Juniper Cobra 2009, which tested five interceptor
missile systems in tandem. [20]
On September 17, while announcing plans to abandon ground-based interceptor
deployments in Poland in favor of a broader stratified system in Europe based
initially on Patriot Advanced Capability-3 and Aegis missiles, Defense
Secretary Robert Gates said in reference to Iran and its neighbors that "the
United States has already formed a Gulf missile defense network that consisted
of PAC-3 and the Aegis sea-based systems....The reality is we are working both
on a bilateral and a multilateral basis in the Gulf to establish the same kind
of regional missile defense that would protect our facilities out there as well
as our friends and allies."
He added: "We have very strong bilateral relationships in developing missile
defense with several of the countries in the Gulf. And now what we're
encouraging is to layer on top of that multilateral cooperation as well." [21]
What Gates was describing is a comprehensive missile shield in the region that
integrates all six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states into a single
interceptor grid linked with facilities and deployments in Israel and Turkey
(if the latter nation permits it) and a continent-wide NATO system in Europe.
The same source reported:
"Officials said the United Arab Emirates has been the most advanced in plans to
form a missile defense umbrella. The UAE has ordered the Terminal High Altitude
Area Defense system, designed to destroy nuclear missiles in the exoatmosphere.
Over the last two years, the Pentagon has been meeting GCC military chiefs to
discuss regional and national missile defense programs....At the same time, the
U.S. military has been operating PAC-3 in Kuwait and Qatar. The U.S. Army has
also been helping Saudi Arabia upgrade its PAC-2 fleet." [22]
The Associated Press stated days after last September's announced change in
U.S. global missile shield plans - in which the "Obama administration shift[ed]
its focus on missile defense away from Europe and toward the Middle East" -
that "Between 2004 and last year, the Emirates bought more weapons than any
other country besides China and India, according to the Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute. The majority of those arms came from the U.S.
Lockheed and partner Raytheon Corp. of Waltham, Mass., are leading the push to
strengthen the Emirates' missile defense systems....It is not the region's only
U.S. ally to have placed such an order. Saudi Arabia, Israel and Kuwait have
all bought Patriot and other missile shield systems....Abu Dhabi is...pushing
to become the first country after the U.S. to deploy what Lockheed says is an
even more advanced missile defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude
Area Defense system, or THAAD...."
[23]
William Lynn, the Pentagon's second highest ranking official and former
lobbyist for the manufacturer of Patriot missiles, Raytheon, delivered a speech
in Washington, D.C. On January 21, the contents of which were reported as
containing the demand to "put the Defense Department on a permanent footing to
fight both low-intensity conflicts to maintaining air dominance and the ability
to strike any target on Earth at any time....The next air warfare priority for
the Pentagon is developing a next-generation, deep-penetrating strike
capability that can overcome advanced air defenses...." [24] The new Prompt
Global Strike system is designed to accomplish just those last three
objectives. [25]
Were a leading defense official of any other nation to publicly promote that
agenda the newspapers of the world would report it and the Pentagon, State
Department and White House would not be silent on the matter. The American
media and the government alike would condemn it for what it is: A threat to
world peace and to the world itself.
1) Wired, January 22, 2010
2) Ibid
3) New York Times, January 30, 2010
4) Wikipedia
5) OnMilwaukee, May 12, 2009
6) American Forces Press Service, February 24, 2010
7) Gulf Daily News, February 1, 2010
8) United Press International, August 25, 2009
9) Lompoc Record, January 27, 2010
10) Ibid
11) Alaska Dispatch, January 13, 2010
12) Radio Poland, January 29, 2010
13) New York Times, January 29, 2010
14) China Daily, February 1, 2010
15) Bloomberg News, February 1, 2010
16) Reuters, February 1, 2010
17) The Times, February 1, 2010
18) United Press International, August 25, 2009
19) Gulf News, January 27, 2010
20) Israel: Forging NATO Missile Shield, Rehearsing War With Iran
Stop NATO, November 5, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/israel-forging-nato-missile-shield-rehearsing-war-with-iran
21) World Tribune, September 30, 2009
22) Ibid
23) Associated Press, September 23, 2009
24) Defense News, January 22, 2010
25) U.S. Accelerates First Strike Global Missile Shield System
Stop NATO, August 19, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/u-s-accelerates-first-strike-global-missile-shield-system/
Militarization Of Space: Threat Of Nuclear War On Earth
Stop NATO, June 18, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/militarization-of-space-threat-of-nuclear-war-on-earth
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