UCS: Scrapping European Missile Defense is Right Move

Statement by David Wright, co-director of UCS's Global Security Program

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (September 17, 2009) — President Obama's announcement today that his administration is scrapping plans to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic was seen as a "victory for common sense" by experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). As noted by leading scientists in a letter to the president in July, the missile defense system slated for Eastern Europe "has not been proven and does not merit deployment. It would offer little or no defensive capability, even in principle."

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Below is a statement by Dr. David Wright, a physicist and co-director of UCS's Global Security Program:

"The decision to scrap plans to deploy a missile defense system in Eastern Europe makes sense for a number of reasons. First, the system wouldn't have stopped a missile attack. The interceptors the U.S. planned to use in Poland and the Czech Republic have not been tested, and they could readily be defeated by decoys and other countermeasures that any country with the capability of developing a long-range missile could use.

"Second, the decision will strengthen U.S. security by bolstering our frayed relations with Russia, whose concerns about the system were based on an exaggerated view of its capabilities against Russia's nuclear arsenal. Today's decision will help secure Russian assistance in dealing with potential Iranian threats, as well as their cooperation on cutting U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals.

"However, the decision to deploy the Aegis SM-3 defense system against shorter-range missiles does not square with technical realities. While the Aegis interceptor has done well in recent tests, it has not been tested under real-world conditions that would show that it would actually work. Like U.S. ground-based interceptors, the Aegis system operates in the vacuum of space, making it vulnerable to simple countermeasures like balloon decoys.

"Finally, Marine Corps General James Cartwright, at a Pentagon press conference today, said that the United States faces 'thinking' adversaries. Those adversaries will certainly be thinking about deploying decoys."

Source: The Union of Concerned Scientists