US missile shield, or another iron curtain?

THE PERCEIVED THREAT

• Lieutenant General Henry Obering, head of the Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency, has said US intelligence suggests that by 2015, Iran could follow North Korea’s example and develop a long-range missile capable of striking the US

• The US brought an earlier anti-missile umbrella, based in Alaska and California, on line in 2004 to protect against the perceived North Korean threat. The Czech and Polish sites should augment that system

• Washington has tried to quell concerns in Moscow that the system would pose a threat to Russia by highlighting that the shield’s missiles are defensive only — carrying no warheads — and would be no match for Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

THE TECHNOLOGY

• The $3.5 billion system would use hit-to-kill technology in which an array of sensors and radar would detect an enemy missile in flight and guide a ground-based interceptor to destroy it

• Without using explosives, the interceptor would ram an incoming warhead at a closing speed of 15,000 miles per hour in a process likened to hitting a bullet with another bullet in space

THE PLAN

• The radar installation planned for the Czech Republic would aim its coverage toward West Asia to detect a missile in flight and guide interceptor missiles into the trajectory of the approaching warhead

• The US and the Czech Republic have already signed a pact to host the radar system as part of the shield, although it must still be ratified in the Czech Parliament

• Washington plans to place 10 interceptor missiles with a range of up to 1,800 miles in Poland. The missiles would be housed in underground silos in an area about the size of a football field

• Construction on both sites is expected to begin in 2009, and they could begin functioning in 2011-2013 (Sources: US Missile Defence Agency, Pentagon, Centre for Defence Information)