ASP Event Triggers Article in National Defense Magazine
ASP’s recent event – A Conversation with Deputy Assistant Secretary for Space and Defense Policy Frank Rose provided that backdrop for Timothy Ambard’s article “Debate Over Missile Defense Interceptors Gets Testy,” published in National Defense Magazine. Ambard writes:
The debate over whether a missile defense system the Obama administration plans to deploy in Europe will actually work got testy as a senior State Department official squared off with a leading critic of the program during a panel discussion June 25.
Thomas B. Cochran, a physicist,and a consultant to the Natural Resources Defense Council, challenged Frank Rose, deputy assistant secretary for space and defense policy on assumptions that the next generation of missile interceptors will be able to distinguish between ballistic missiles carrying warheads and decoys.
The issue was discussed at an American Security Project panel discussion looking at the administration’s European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) that calls for interceptors to be first deployed on Aegis warships, and later on the ground in Europe. The plan to place interceptors and radar sites in Europe was first proposed during the George W. Bush administration in 2007 as a reaction to the Iranian missiles program, and then revised by the Obama administration in 2009. The plan has brought forth critics from both sides of the political spectrum as well as opposition from Russia, according to a summary of the issues the think tank distributed at the event.
To read the full article, click here
