Missile defense: not "Star Wars" anymore.(Scan)

When tomorrow's historians write about 2003, they will no doubt devote most of their ink to the global campaign against terror and its offspring in Iraq. Yet, with long-range ballistic missiles sprouting up like wildflowers around the globe, those historians may save a few pages to discuss something else about last year: Missile defense went mainstream.

What was once derided as "Star Wars" has come into its own. Technological advances, determined U.S. leadership, and rampant missile technology proliferation are making missile defense not just a theoretical dream, but an essential piece of the security puzzle for the United States and its closest allies.

President George W. Bush laid the groundwork for this development in 2001 and 2002. After putting Moscow on notice that he was committed to erecting a missile defense system, he convinced the Russians that it wouldn't upset the U.S.-Russia deterrent balance by offering to slash the U.S. nuclear arsenal by two thirds. With Moscow on board, he then scrapped the anachronistic ABM Treaty, made formal requests for assistance to key allies, and shifted missile defense development into high gear.

Fittingly, Britain was the first ally to join the missile defense coalition. In February 2003, less than two months alter Washington made its request, the Blair government agreed to software and hardware upgrades of ground-based radar stations at Flyingdales and Menwith Hill. Once used to scan the skies for Soviet bombers, the bases will now be used to peer over the European horizon and into Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean borderlands, watching for accidental or rogue missile launches.

Tokyo had been cooperating quietly with Washington on missile defense research since the late 1990s, when North Korea began to test and deploy medium-and long-range missiles. But it was not until February 2003 that Japan's Defense Agency announced its intention to join the U.S. military for missile defense tests in and around Hawaii. In December 2003 Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi gave military officials the go-ahead for construction of a Japanese missile defense system.

Underscoring the gravity and immediacy of the North Korean threat, Tokyo intends to invest close to $5 billion over the next four years to field the system. Using both land-based missiles, such as modified Patriot PAC-2s and highly sophisticated Patriot PAC-3s, as well as sea-based missiles, Japan's missile shield will help defend its own cities and key U.S. bases. It could be operational by 2007.

Word of Australia's intention to join the U.S. also came in December, when its foreign minister, Alexander Downer, officially informed parliament of the "strategic decision to put in place a long-term measure to counter potential threats to Australia's security and its interests from ballistic missile proliferation."