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Australia signs 'Star Wars' pact
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-08 14:00 The United States and Australia have pledged to
work together to develop, test and possibly operate a costly system to shoot
down attacking ballistic missiles.
The two also agreed to conduct more U.S. military training exercises in
Australia and to harmonize systems and procedures so their armed forces can
fight together more efficiently.
U.S. President George W. Bush has made building a missile defense system a
top priority, despite critics' questions about its cost and viability and the
shift of the U.S. security focus to counterterrorism after the September 11,
2001, attacks.
Hill and Rumsfeld
trade signed copies of the pact Wednesday, July 7, 2004.
[AP] | Under a pact signed on Wednesday, the two
nations laid the groundwork to jointly develop, test and possibly run such a
system, with early work on advanced radar that can help detect ballistic
missiles soon after launch, the Pentagon said.
Another early aim would be to equip a new Australian destroyer with missile
defense capability, it added.
The initial U.S. missile defense system, costing more than $50 billion over
the next five years, is designed to shoot down any inbound North Korean
ballistic missiles that could be fitted with nuclear, chemical or biological
warheads.
North Korea is seen as a major threat to U.S. allies in the Pacific because
of its long-range missile and suspected nuclear weapons programs.
The Pentagon plans to broaden the system and to layer in interceptors based
at sea, lasers aboard modified jumbo jets and possibly space-based rockets that
could attack all three phases of an enemy missile's flight.
The United States will launch its effort this year by deploying a radar
system and ground-based missiles in Alaska, designed to hit long-range missiles
flying eastward across the Pacific.
Australian officials said they want to find ways to protect themselves, even
though Australia faces no current threat from ballistic missiles.
"We have a responsibility to address not only the threats of today, but the
threats that we might face in the future," Australian Defense Minister Robert
Hill, who signed the pact with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, told
reporters.
Australia will join South Korea, Japan, Britain, Germany, Israel, Italy, the
Netherlands, Norway and Spain among countries working with the United States on
missile defense, a U.S. official said.
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