US to adjust European missile defense plan

[September 17, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon says the Obama administration is making a "major adjustment" to a European missile defense plan that has been an irritant in relations with Russia.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says the plan has been changed to better protect U.S. forces and allies in Europe from Iranian missile attacks.

Earlier Thursday, the prime minister of the Czech Republic, one of two countries where the system was to be built, said President Barack Obama had told him the United States would abandon the plan.

The Pentagon says the change comes in part because the U.S. has concluded that Iran is less focused on developing the kind of long-range missiles for which the original system was developed.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is expected to announce Thursday that it will shelve a European missile defense plan that has been a major irritant in relations with Russia.

The prime minister of the Czech Republic, one of two countries where the system was to be built, said Thursday that President Barack Obama had told him the United States would abandon the plan.

Jan Fischer said Obama telephoned him to say that Washington no longer intends to put 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.

Obama's top military adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the administration was "very close" to the end of a seven-month review of a missile defense shield proposal, an idea that was promoted by the George W. Bush administration. Mullen would not divulge its results.

Obama faced the dilemma of either setting back the gradual progress toward repairing relations with Russia or disappointing two key NATO allies, the Czech Republic and Poland, that agreed to host components of the planned system.

Czech government spokesman Roman Prorok said Ellen Tauscher, a U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, was briefing Czech officials in Prague and Polish officials in Warsaw on Thursday about Obama's decision.

"It is most probable that the U.S. administration will unfortunately scrap the plan altogether," said Jaroslaw Gowin, lawmaker for Poland's ruling Civic Platform party. "This would confirm that Central Europe is not in the center of the Obama administration's interest. But maybe the U.S. will offer us an alternative."

Piotr Paszkowski, spokesman for Poland's Foreign Ministry, told The Associated Press he would wait for the U.S. announcement before commenting.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates scheduled a news conference Thursday with a top military leader, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, who has been a point man on the technical challenge of arraying missiles and interceptors to defend against long-range missiles that an aggressor such as Iran might lob at the U.S. or its allies. Two military officials said the news conference would concern the missile defense plans.

Obama took office undecided about whether to continue to press for the European system and said he would study it. His administration never sounded enthusiastic about the plan, and European allies have been preparing for an announcement that the White House would not complete the shield as designed.

The decision comes as the Obama administration has been seeking closer ties with Moscow and as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is preparing to visit the United States next week for the U.N. General Assembly and the Group of 20 nations economic summit.

The plan for a European shield was a darling of the Bush administration, which reached deals to install 10 interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic -- eastern European nations at Russia's doorstep and once under Soviet sway.

Moscow has argued that the system would undermine the nuclear deterrent of its vast arsenal.

Medvedev has praised Obama for reviewing the plans, though the U.S. administration has maintained the Bush administration's argument that the European missile defense plans are aimed at countering a threat from Iran and pose no threat to Russia.

Alexei Arbatov, head of the Russian Academy of Science's Center for International Security, told a Moscow radio station Thursday that "the United States is reckoning that by rejecting the missile-defense system or putting it off to the far future, Russia will be inclined together with the United States to take a harder line on sanctions against Iran."

The administration has given few clues on how it intends to handle European missile defense. Officials have said the review would consider alternative plans to those involving Poland and the Czech Republic.

At an Army missile defense conference last month, Cartwright, who is vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested that the U.S. may have underestimated how long it would take Iran to develop long-range missiles. That was seen as a clue that the administration might be backing away from the European plan as devised.

Military officials at the conference discussed possible alternatives for European missile defense, including using shorter-range interceptors from other locations closer to Iran.

Cartwright also has discussed ways the United States might join forces with other nations to watch and protect against Iranian missiles. Using multiple sensors, including some in the Persian Gulf region, theoretically could provide at least a partial shield for Eastern Europe without basing a full radar and interceptor system so close to Russia.

It was unclear Wednesday whether the administration would preserve any of the planned physical emplacements for the European system.

[Associated Press]

Associated Press writers Lara Jakes, Matthew Lee and Robert Burns in Washington; Karel Janicek in Prague; and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.