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Britain's Chief of Defense Staff Casts Doubt on US Missile Defense
The chief of Britain's defense staff has expressed serious doubts about the United States missile defense project, saying he has seen no evidence the technology will work.
Admiral Michael Boyce also warned that participating in the missile defense shield, designed to protect the U.S. from "rogue states," would leave little in the budget for other defense spending.
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper published on Saturday, he said it would be irresponsible not to face up to the potential threat of ballistic missiles.
But he also warned that it could have a potentially devastating impact on Britain's own military capabilities and the cost might drain all British defense budget.
"There is no way I'm in the position to suggest we can pay for any missile defense technology from within the existing defense budget and carry on doing what we are doing at the moment," he said.
Boyce doubted the American suggestions of a practicable system to defend the interests of itself and other nations.
"So far we have no hard evidence from the Americans as to what they think is in the art of the technology. No one has actually come up firmly on the American side because they are still exploiting it. I have seen nothing yet to give me a technical description of what has been proposed," he said.
The chief of defense staff also made clear that he had misgivings about the American suggestion that missile defense should be embraced by the European allies.
"There's no point in completely impoverishing ourselves in order to provide ourselves with a defense against one particular system and not being able to do anything else," Boyce was quoted by the Guardian as saying.
But he stressed that it would be for politicians to decide whether Britain took part in the missile defense project.
Last week, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and visiting U.S. President George W. Bush discussed the U.S. proposal for a national missile defense system, which could require the use of British radar stations as part of the system.
Blair has said he is prepared to listen to Bush's plan, saying the U.S. leader was right to raise the issue of how to counter a missile threat from so-called rogue states.
The U.S. policy is strongly opposed by Russia. Some European leaders have also expressed doubts about setting aside the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which many analysts said is the basement of peace and stability of the world.
Boyce also said China as well as Russia must be included in any new international strategic framework.
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