Son of Star Wars

What's wrong with Ballistic Missile Defense?

The US 'Ballistic Missile Defense' (BMD) programme is not the 'defensive' system that our politicians would have us believe. It is aimed at guaranteeing US ability to intervene wherever it chooses and involves developing technology with clear offensive potential. It will lead to weapons in space and missile proliferation around the globe, and will undermine other means of dealing with perceived 'threats' including diplomacy, arms control and international disarmament.

Missile Proliferation: Even if other countries do not seek to obtain or increase missile technology as a response to the US system, proliferation is already actively underway by the US itself. Last year, Boeing was sent out into the world to sign up partner companies which could pressurise their own governments into going along with BMD. It initially signed agreements with BAE Systems, Finmeccanica and EADS, then moved on to CAE of Canada and PIT of Poland. Boeing has stated that it is 'scouring the globe for similar agreements with defense firms'¹ while Lockheed Martin 'would not rule out agreements with South Korean and even Chinese firms.'² In addition to partnerships, actual exports of the more progressed systems are in the pipeline. Most notably, Israel has held talks with India and Turkey about purchasing the joint US-Israeli Arrow system. Though Arrow exports would require clearance from the US, this is reportedly being pushed for by Boeing, Arrow's co-producer. Meanwhile, opposition to Arrow exports is coming from Raytheon which doesn't want sales to threaten exports of its Patriot (PAC-3) system!

But BMD is not only dangerous, it is a massive waste of resources and a staggeringly generous donation to arms companies. US arms companies, one of the main driving forces behind the programme, are in a feeding frenzy – not only are budgets rapidly expanding (presently around $8 billion a year), but democratic control of the spending is being reduced. While the US is presently the main country throwing its money down this drain, others will follow as soon as they are persuaded to sign up to BMD.

The UK's position

The UK has made its first concrete steps towards involvement. In February 2003, after the most token of consultations, the UK government allowed the US to upgrade the Fylingdales early warning radar station on the North Yorkshire Moors for use in the BMD programme. In June 2003 the UK government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US government that 'prepares the way for fair opportunities to be given to UK industry to participate in the US programme'³ and on 18th July the MoD announced the launch of a new Missile Defence Centre. The MDC has a 'foundation group' of AMS, BAE Systems, INSYS, MBDA and QinetiQ, and 'other UK companies and universities will be invited to propose further participation in the MDC'. Funding is provided by the UK government (£5m a year for up to six years) with 'matching contributions' from UK industry.⁴

Why is the UK government getting involved? Simply, it feels it needs to go along with US demands. However, this isn't a particularly convincing argument for a sceptical UK public so it wheels out the contracts, i.e. 'jobs', argument in a bid to sell the scheme. While the UK government freely admits it has not identified an 'immediate significant ballistic missile threat to the UK',⁵ it says it has identified an 'opportunity for UK industry to reap the benefits of participation' in the BMD programme.⁶ What it doesn't say, however, is that the bulk of the money that goes to UK-based companies won't be from the US Department of Defense, but from UK tax-payers.

Obviously, the UK's arms companies don't care where the money comes from. They are playing along with the government implication that US money will be coming their way but they know that the US arms budget is almost entirely spent within the US. While a few contracts are likely to surface as a quid pro quo for the use of Fylingdales and Menwith Hill, the real prize for UK companies is for the UK government to sign up to BMD and start spending its money on a UK element of the US system.

DSEi

Major US BMD companies will be at DSEi (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon) along with the UK companies (BAE Systems, MBDA, QinetiQ and INSYS) which hope, with government support and money, to jump on board.

1 Defense News, 17.2.03
2 Defense News, 17.2.03
3 Hansard, 12.7.03, Col. WA62
4 MoD press release, 18.7.03
5 MoD, 'Missile Defence: a public discussion paper', December 2002
6 Hansard, 15.1.03, Col. 261