Col. Stanislav Lunev
Monday, June 17, 2002

Last week, after 30 years of preventing the U.S. from building a National Missile Defense (NMD), the 1972 ABM Treaty passed into history, six months after President Bush gave Moscow official notice of withdrawal from the agreement.

This treaty banned the U.S. from developing and deploying an anti-missile weapons system, which could protect Americans from hostile and accidental missile strikes in our very unpredictable world.

As NewsMax.com has frequently reported, the threat from ballistic missiles continues to grow. Today, nearly three dozen countries have, or are developing, ballistic missiles of increasing range and sophistication. In early May, Iran conducted a successful test of its 800-mile-range Shahab-3 missile and soon will begin domestic production of the 1,200-1,800-mile-range Shahab-4s.

The new missile will be able to reach deep into the European continent, as well as reaching American forces deployed in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia.

The same research and development programs are under way in Iraq and North Korea, as well as in such terrorist-sponsoring countries as Syria and Libya and other nations. After Sept. 11, which demonstrated the willingness of our adversaries to exploit our weaknesses, Americans dare not allow themselves to remain vulnerable to this threat.

We have entered a new era in international relations in which the threats to the U.S. are increasingly complex and difficult to predict, including the possibility of new attacks, but this time with ballistic missiles armed with nuclear, chemical and biological warheads. The only responsible course of action to deal with those threats is to proceed with the most robust program of missile defense development we can afford.

According to preliminary plans, construction of NMD began last Saturday on the silos and other facilities at Fort Greely, Alaska, for the initial land-based missile interceptors. The first five are to be in place by October 2004, aided by ship-based anti-ballistic missile radars, which were banned by the ABM Treaty.

By 2007, the number of interceptors could be expanded to about 100; experts believe that this would protect America against up to 25 or 30 hostile missiles.

However, by the end of his first term, President Bush will have accomplished what his predecessors did not – we will have put in place an NMD capability. This limited system in Alaska, which will be used for further testing, is just the beginning. More interceptors will be added as needed, and a major development program to test and field a variety of missile defense technologies will continue for decades, leading to a worldwide missile defense network.

In particular, an anti-missile defense can be developed in cooperation with America’s allies. According to press reports, Italy and Germany are currently cooperating in the development of the Medium Extended Air Defense System, a missile defense based on the highly successful Patriot PAC-3 interceptor.

But longer-range interceptors integrated with radar and improved early warning satellites are also needed by those allies threatened by the longer-range missiles being developed in Iran and other rogue nations.

The U.S. has everything needed to create NMD and protect Americans from hostile and accidental missile strikes. U.S. specialists currently are working on the structure of a worldwide anti-missile network that could identify a missile launch anywhere on the planet, track it and direct the nearest interceptor to destroy it. There is no doubt that after completion of this system, our world would be a much safer place than it is now.

There is only one serious problem – lack of will among some politicians in Washington, who prefer to play their own political games instead of supporting President Bush’s plans for protecting American lives. Realizing these plans will mean no less than a revolution in U.S. defenses, which could support international peace and stability for many years ahead.

Col. Stanislav Lunev is the highest-ranking Soviet military intelligence officer ever to defect from Russia. Read his gripping story, Through the Eyes of the Enemy.

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