U.S. To Develop, Deploy Ballistic Missile Defense System

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 7, 2001 - The United States will
build and deploy a ballistic missile defense system,
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said June 7 to
defense ministers gathered NATO headquarters here.
At a morning North Atlantic Council meeting, Rumsfeld told
the ministers that the "development and deployment of
ballistic missile defenses will be an element" of a
revamped U.S. defense framework.
"We intend to build and deploy [missile] defenses to
protect the U.S., our forward-deployed forces, and in
cooperation with friends and allies," he added. Rumsfeld
told NATO ministers that the goal "is to deploy defenses
against handfuls of missiles." He added that creating such
a system wouldn't occur overnight.
The United States would not make decisions on the
configuration of the missile defense system "until our
technologies have been tested, and it is likely they will
evolve over time," he said.
"As this program progresses, we will likely deploy test
assets to provide rudimentary defenses to deal with
emerging threats," he added.
At an afternoon NATO press briefing, Rumsfeld told
reporters that the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons of mass destruction - and of the
ballistic missile systems to deliver them - are real
threats to world peace and stability.
He told reporters nondemocratic countries like North Korea,
Iraq and others that are unfriendly to the United States
and its allies either have or are seeking WMD and ballistic
missile technology to increase their political profile and
"clout" in the world.
These countries are often poor, Rumsfeld told reporters.
"(They) are determined, they are taking their funds from
all the creature comforts for their people ... and investing
them in ballistic missile technology and weapons of mass
destruction technology," he said.
Rumsfeld showed videotape of previous, successful U.S.
missile defense system tests at the North Atlantic Council
meeting and told the NATO ministers he welcomed their
input.
"We look forward to exploring opportunities for enhanced
cooperation with friends, allies and others," he said.
His proposal for NATO consultation on U.S. missile defense
plans "marks an important opportunity for allies to consult
about the direction of U.S. thinking," NATO Secretary-
General Lord George Robertson remarked in a press release
distributed after the council meeting.
The United States and NATO must adjust to global
geopolitical changes and evolve their deterrence strategy,
Rumsfeld said to NATO ministers. A fly in the ointment, he
believes, is the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Defense Treaty
between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The ABM treaty "stands in the way of a 21st century
approach to deterrence," Rumsfeld told the ministers. "It
prevents deployment of defenses that can deny others the
power to hold our populations hostage to nuclear blackmail.
Deploying missile defenses capable of protecting the U.S.,
friends and allies will eventually require moving beyond
the ABM treaty."
Rumsfeld told the ministers the United States would consult
with NATO and Russia "to find a new framework that will
enable us to test and deploy defenses against new threats."
No country, Rumsfeld said to the ministers, should be
worried about the envisioned ballistic missile defense
system.
"Such defenses are no threat whatsoever to anyone. They are
defenses, not offenses," he said. "And by no stretch of
anyone's imagination could they even begin to deal with the
thousands of weapons deployed by Russia.
"Russia knows that very well, let there be no doubt."