The Pentagon's development of a boost-phase interceptor system is raising alarms in Congress. Officials and scientists involved in the program say that countering a potential Iranian ballistic missile threat would require permanent US military installations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and possibly the Caspian region.
Funding is climbing fast. The development budget will jump from $118 million to $511 million in October 2004, reach $1.1 billion in 2006, and grow to $2.2 billion by 2009. Flight testing is planned for fiscal 2010.
The program centers on truck-mounted launchers capable of eight kilometers per second, designed to strike missiles during their roughly three-minute ascent before warheads separate. Because detection and targeting consume at least 30 seconds of that window, proximity to Iranian launch sites is essential. A Congressional Budget Office study called for two to four base locations, listing Turkmenistan, eastern Iraq, western Afghanistan, and Gulf positions as options. A separate American Physical Society analysis proposed a Caspian Sea floating platform or an Azerbaijani site.
Each installation would likely field three mobile launchers carrying two interceptors each, along with Patriot air defense batteries and a defensive perimeter against ground assault. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Emerging Threats subcommittee, said the Pentagon was committing large sums without thinking clearly about the system's full strategic architecture.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in September 2004, in its own words.