Gates: More missile defense spending possible

[June 02, 2009]  FORT GREELY, Alaska (AP) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates isn't ruling out spending more on missile defense than what he's asked for in next year's budget if North Korea or other nations increase threats against the United States.

Gates said the missile tests by North Korea over the past week appear to have attracted more support on Capitol Hill for missile interceptors.

Gates was visiting the Missile Defense Complex in remote Alaska on Monday. The U.S. plans to store 26 ground-based missile interceptors in silos there. Four others are at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Gates said he thinks that's enough to protect the U.S. right now.

He said he's requested nearly $1 billion in the 2010 fiscal budget to develop and maintain those missile interceptors. But the Pentagon's spending plan halts a planned expansion of the missile defense system at Fort Greely.

Gates called that "not a forever decision."

"And if capabilities in one of these rogue states should develop faster or in a more worrisome way than anybody anticipates right now, then I think the way is opened in the future to add to the number of silos and interceptors up here," he said.

"If anything, I think what the North Koreans have done has won more adherence to the importance of our having at least a unified missile defense capability," Gates said.

He repeated his belief that North Korea's missiles currently do not threaten the United States. North Korea this week moved a long-range missile -- the second in three months -- that some believe could hit the United States. But it's not clear what Pyongyang intends to do with it.

Gates added: "If there were a launch from a rogue state such as North Korea, I have good confidence that we would be able to deal with it."

The last time the United States tested its interceptors was in December, when one launched from Vandenberg hit a target intended to mimic the speed and trajectory of a North Korean missile. That cost $120 million to $150 million in what officials then called the most comprehensive missile defense test to date.

After decades of development, at a cost exceeding $100 billion, the missile defense system now in place in America -- mainly at Greely and Vandenberg -- is largely unproven and unpopular in Congress. It began as a way to stop long-range missiles launched in a doomsday scenario during the Cold War years when the United States and the Soviet Union targeted each other with thousands of nuclear missiles.

The military argues that the network is needed to protect the United States and its allies against growing threats from nations such as Iran and North Korea, both of which have tested long-range missiles.

But President Barack Obama expressed skepticism about the capabilities of the system during his campaign, leading to speculation he may reduce the program's scope.

[Associated Press; By LARA JAKES]

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