BERLIN (AP) – The head of the U.S. missile defense program sought Thursday to allay “consternation and misinformation” over plans to base interceptor missiles in Europe, stressing during a visit to Germany that they would protect European allies as well as the United States.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry A. Obering III underlined the defensive nature of the system, which he said could stop a potential nuclear attack from Iran on the U.S., Europe or U.S. troops based here.
The missile shield would fend off “what we see to be a very serious threat emerging from Iran, a very aggressive missile development program there,” he told journalists.
By 2011 or 2012, when the shield should be deployed, “we are very much concerned about the capability of the Iranians to reach almost all of Europe by that point and certainly they may also be able to reach the United States.”
Obering said Russia – whose sharp objections have raised concerns in Europe – has nothing to fear because the system is in the wrong place to stop Russian missiles and is too small to diminish the threat from Moscow’s arsenal of thousands of warheads.
“This in no way, shape or form threatens the Russian missile fleet,” he said. “The numbers don’t add up.”
Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin and top generals have criticized the proposal for the interceptors and for missile-tracking radar in the Czech Republic.
Although the U.S. had informed NATO and Russia about its plans, criticism grew after Washington asked Poland and the Czech Republic for talks on bases.
European skepticism about the program has put the U.S. in a predicament strangely like the one it found itself in during the Cold War: trying to convince reluctant Europeans about the merits of new missiles. Efforts to station Pershing II missiles in Europe in the late 1970s and early 1980s to counter a Soviet buildup sparked protests.
This time the threat comes from a different direction.
“What we are proposing is geared toward that threat, the Iranian threat,” Obering said.
“This has caused what I consider to be consternation and misinformation in some nations, and so one of the reasons we want to try to visit the various governments is to make sure this information is clear and as transparent as we possibly can be about it.”
The United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions on Iran for not abandoning its program to enrich uranium, which the U.S. says is a prelude to making an atomic bomb. Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful.
Obering took his case directly to the German public with an appearance on a top morning news show, ZDF public television’s “Morning Magazine.” He then held a press breakfast with journalists from top German television stations and newspapers, and visited the foreign and defense ministries.
During the meeting with journalists, he rejected Russian criticism that the system could be expanded.
“You can look at our budget out through 2013 and you can see we don’t have any more money other than for the 10 interceptors we have proposed,” he said.
He also responded to criticism the U.S. had not consulted with others, saying he had personally briefed NATO officials and NATO’s liaison council with Russia.
“With the Russians, I actually showed trajectories from Iran to Europe, from Iran to the United States, why the Czech Republic and Poland would be important in trying to position assets there,” he said.
The interceptors would release a small “kill vehicle” that would destroy an incoming warhead in a high-speed collision as it arcs through space toward its target. The kill vehicle has no explosive warhead but simply uses the force of the collision.
Obering’s diplomatic tour took him on Wednesday to Ukraine, which has a close but edgy relationship with Russia, and he travels next to France, where officials have expressed concern missile defense could compromise security by worsening relations with Russia.
Europeans are not of one mind on the issue. Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken a reserved attitude, calling for “an open discussion” with Russia and said the issue should be discussed within the NATO alliance. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said Europe is vulnerable to missile attack, and NATO is working on its own, shorter-range missile defense that could defend battlefield troops.
Other politicians have been sharply critical of the way Washington has approached the issue. Hans-Peter Bartels, a member of the defense committee in the German parliament for the left-of-center Social Democrats, rejected Obering’s statements that the system aimed to protect allies.
“The missile defense shield is a unilateral US project that seeks invulnerability for the U.S. homeland,” Bartels said.
Alexander Bonde of the Greens expressed “great concern” about the plan and said Germany must press the U.S. for answers and not let the question be settled just between Washington, Warsaw and Prague.
The U.S. system, along with radar systems in Greenland and Britain, would protect Europe and the east coast of the United States. Missiles at Ft. Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California would try to counter any threat from North Korea.
