• Forum
• SITREP
• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security

• Space

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Public Eye

Australia, US start talks on missile defense system

PLA Daily 2004-01-14

CANBERRA, Jan. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Australian and US officials Tuesday started talks on Australia's involvement in Washington's missile defense system, an issue subject to Opposition's criticism and sensitive to neighboring countries.

The talks being held in Sydney focused on a bilateral memorandum of understanding, including the projects Australia will be involved.

Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill told local ABC radio Tuesday that among one of the projects under discussion, Australia may buy SM3 missiles that destroy incoming inter-continental ballistic missiles. Such a system would be installed on Australian navy warships.

The missile defense system will have the capability "to basically meet and intercept missiles outside of the atmosphere," he said.

For the US side, Australia's over-the-horizon radar will be the most likely project under consideration.

"Not only in the over-the-horizon-radar for what it might be able to see, but also in the technology," Phillip Coyle, assistant defense secretary in the Bill Clinton administration, told ABC Tuesday.

"Australia has done some inventive things. This may be an area where Australia can teach the United States a thing or two," he added.

Canberra announced on Dec. 4 its participation in the US controversial missile defense system "for strategic defense interests. "But the move has caused concern among some neighboring countries.

Turning down the saying that Australia's missile plan will fuel arms race in the region, Hill said there is already a proliferation of surface-to-air missiles and Australia must have a defense system to cope with it.

"What I'm saying ... is that the capability to defend against it is rapidly advancing and through the decision the Australian government has taken, we will be in a position to give Australia that security in the future," he said.

Meanwhile, in Jakarta, an Indonesian member of parliament expressed his strong opposition to Australia's missile defense system, saying it is targeted against Indonesia.

Djoko Susilo said Canberra's planned system is "not defensive anymore, it's offensive already."

Hill's effort to justify the missile defense system has apparently failed to quell Opposition's criticism.

Opposition defense spokesman Chris Evans on Tuesday challenged the government's plan as it has not budgeted any spending. And the Son of Star Wars program, the US system Australia has joined, will only encourage other countries to ramp up their spending on defense, he said.

"What is clear is that development of a system will lead to the proliferation of systems designed to beat it. That is the history of arms development, throughout the history of the world," he said.

The Australian Greens Party has demanded the government to suspend its talks on the project until a parliamentary inquiry is completed, while the Australian Democrats called for the government to abandon its involvement.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute program director Aldo Borgu told Sky TV news Tuesday that the effect of the Son of Star Wars is still doubtable.

"That's something I think that we'd need to look through and have our own defense scientists to go through the US test results to make sure that, you know, we're not getting involved in a furphy," he said.