MD Development Cost Eight Billion Dollars

On May 1, George W. Bush declared the plan to begin intensively National Missile Defense (NMD) system to defend the U. S. and its allies from the missile threat posed by so-called rogue nations, and presented to renounce a 72 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM).

President Bush, in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington, spoke that “Unlike the Cold War, today’s most urgent threat stems from a small number of missiles in the hands of the states for whom terror and blackmail are a way of life. I’m committed to achieve a credible deterrent with the lowest possible number of nuclear weapons consistent with our national security needs.” And for this purpose, “We can draw on already established technologies that might involve land-based and sea-based capabilities to intercept missiles in mid-course or after they re-enter the atmosphere.” The U. S. press reported that ``states posing new threats`` refer to such nations as North Korea and Iraq.

In this speech, President Bush did not designate concrete concepts, budget, deployment time, etc. and did not even mention the term `NMD`.

On this speech, an analyst said ``President Bush suggested to share the advanced technology of missile with Japan, NATO, Korea, Israel, and Taiwan, and this implies that the U. S. will disseminate the missile technology to these countries in order to draw supports for this plan``, in Los Angeles Times.

On May 2, Foreign Ministry of Russia, having opposed to NMD plan, responded with worry that the NMD plan may lead to a new arms race from the existing international strategic stability.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Defense of the U.S. provided a plan to increase significantly arms purchasing budget from 60 billion dollars to 90 billion dollars every year for next 7 years, starting from October, 2002 fiscal year, reported Wall Street Journal. Such increment also involves the development cost of MD, amounting to 8 billion dollars.

Han Ki-Heung eligius@donga.com