NEWS BRIEFS
Missile Defense Test Site Contracts Awarded
Europeans Scrutinize Arms Sales to Israel
South Korea to Purchase 40 U.S. Fighter
Jets
India Signs Contract for U.S. Radars
CD Ends First Part of Session in Deadlock
U.S. Offers Fighters, Advanced Missiles to Brazil
Missile Defense Test Site Contracts Awarded
Major construction activity on a proposed U.S. missile defense
test site at Fort Greely, Alaska, is projected to start this June
under two contracts awarded April 16 to private construction companies.
Boeing, the lead private contractor on the proposed U.S. ground-based
midcourse missile defense (GMD) system currently being tested, awarded
the Bechtel Corporation a contract April 16 for construction of
missile interceptor silos at Fort Greely. The work is to begin in
mid-June, and Bechtel will receive approximately $60 million.
Pentagon plans envision stationing five missile interceptors and
possibly one spare at Fort Greely by September 2004. The interceptors
are for testing purposes, but Pentagon officials claim that the
interceptors also could be used in an emergency.
Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, who manages U.S. missile defense
programs, told congressmen at a late February hearing that he would
have “high confidence” that, if testing went according
to plan, the interceptors at Fort Greely could be used in 2004 to
shoot down a ballistic missile launched unannounced by North Korea.
The other April 16 contract, awarded by the Army Corps of Engineers,
calls on Fluor Alaska, Incorporated to construct a base for operationally
realistic missile defense testing, including four buildings at Fort
Greely to house electronics, communications, and maintenance equipment
associated with the GMD system. If certain options are exercised,
the contract’s total value could exceed $250 million.
Because weather conditions at the central Alaska site limit outside
work to a seven-month period, the contract calls for finishing the
buildings’ exteriors by October so that interior work can be
done throughout the winter. Construction under this contract is
to be completed by June 2004.
A mid-April discovery at Fort Greely of about 20 barrels with U.S.
government markings suggesting they could contain toxic chemicals
is not expected to delay site construction. An Army Corps of Engineers
spokesperson in Alaska said April 19 that an analysis showed that
the substance in the barrels was not toxic and that preliminary
work at the site started last August would soon resume after being
halted for several days.
Europeans Scrutinize Arms Sales to
Israel
In April, European legislators called for an arms embargo on Israel
because of its military operation launched March 29 in the Palestinian
West Bank. European governments have yet to act officially, although
some, such as Germany and the United Kingdom, are looking at Israeli
arms requests with greater scrutiny, effectively slowing or suspending
arms deals with the Jewish state.
No European arms embargos have been imposed on Israel, although
the European Parliament of the 15-nation European Union and the
Parliamentary Assembly of the 44-nation Council of Europe—a
negotiating forum founded in 1949 to protect human rights, democracy,
and the rule of law in Europe—have recommended imposing an
arms embargo on Israel in separate April votes.
An Israeli official said certain arms requests are not being acted
on at their normal pace and that “some things are taking their
time.” The official declined to go into further detail.
Although not taking formal action to cut off arms supplies to Israel,
Germany has put off making a decision on whether to deliver spare
tank parts requested by Israel. German export law restricts selling
arms to regions in conflict.
The United Kingdom is now looking more closely at Israeli arms
exports because London contests that it can no longer trust Israeli
assurances that U.K.-supplied weapons will not be used in ways to
which it objects. Israel agreed in November 2000 that British arms
would not be used in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories,
but London revealed March 11 that it had determined Israel used
converted U.K. tanks contrary to that agreement.
The United States, the largest arms supplier to Israel, has not
suggested that U.S. sales to the country are in any jeopardy. The
1976 Arms Export Control Act, which governs U.S. arms transfers,
states that U.S.-supplied weapons are to be used by the recipient
for self-defense and internal security purposes. The Israeli official
said U.S. officials have not called into question Israeli use of
U.S.-supplied arms.
Appearing April 21 on NBC’s Meet the Press, Secretary
of State Colin Powell said the United States is not considering
cutting off any aid to Israel. Israel, which received roughly $2
billion in U.S. military aid this fiscal year, is the largest recipient
of U.S. Foreign Military Financing grants, which the country uses
to purchase U.S. weaponry as well as weapons produced by its own
arms industry.
South Korea to Purchase 40 U.S.
Fighter Jets
After a drawn-out and fiercely contested competition, South Korea
announced April 19 that it would purchase U.S.-made combat jets
instead of French fighters in an estimated $4.4 billion deal for
40 planes.
Pending finalization of a contract, the U.S. fighters are scheduled
for delivery to South Korea between 2005 and 2008. A spokesperson
for Boeing, which builds the F-15K multirole fighter chosen by South
Korea, said that June is the target for concluding the contract.
Seoul’s selection of the F-15K came as little surprise after
the South Korean government declared March 27 that its final decision
between Boeing’s combat aircraft and Dassault Aviation’s
Rafale would take into account political and military ties. The
United States is considered to be South Korea’s closest ally.
The U.S. and French fighters ranked virtually even in South Korea’s
evaluation of several technical and pricing factors, including each
aircraft’s life-cycle costs and operational capabilities.
Following the March announcement, Dassault Aviation filed a lawsuit
in South Korea to block a final decision by Seoul, alleging an unfair
selection process. In an April 19 statement, the French company
said it recognized South Korea’s choice as being a matter of
national sovereignty, but it was reserving its right to legal action.
The South Korean press heavily criticized U.S. politicians during
the fighter competition for what was perceived as unduly pressuring
South Korea to select the F-15K. For its part, Boeing, which builds
the F-15 fighter in St. Louis, called the competition “transparent
and fair.”
The deal breathes new life into Boeing’s F-15 production line,
which looked to close in 2004 when it finished construction of 10
F-15E fighters for the U.S. Air Force. Without the 2001 Air Force
contract, the F-15 line “would have closed a year or two ago—eliminating
the chance for the Korean sale,” explained Senator Christopher
Bond’s (R-MO) office in an April 19 press release.
South Korea joins Israel, Japan, and Saudi Arabia as F-15 buyers.
India Signs Contract for U.S. Radars
On April 17, India signed an agreement worth approximately $146
million with the Pentagon to purchase eight advanced radars. The
deal, which the United States authorized last year, marks the first
major arms sale by the U.S. government to India in more than a decade.
Under the terms of the agreement, India will receive eight AN/TPQ-37
Firefinder radars, which are ground-based radars designed to detect
and locate the precise site of an enemy’s artillery and rocket
systems. Thales Raytheon Systems, a trans-Atlantic U.S., French,
and British venture, builds the radar.
Private U.S. companies last delivered India military-related equipment
and dual-use goods—items having both civilian and military
applications that require a U.S. government license to export—in
1994. Those deliveries totaled a little more than $97 million.
Last September, the Bush administration lifted sanctions prohibiting
arms sales to India, which is historically a major buyer of Russian
weaponry. The U.S. action was announced in conjunction with the
removal of similar sanctions on Pakistan. Washington had imposed
sanctions on both India and Pakistan following their May 1998 nuclear
tests.
Although the Bush administration had apparently favored lifting
sanctions on India for some time, it did not want to waive sanctions
on one of the South Asian rivals and not the other. Pakistan’s
support for the U.S. war on terrorism, however, provided the administration
with the opportunity to lift sanctions on New Delhi and Islamabad
simultaneously.
CD Ends First Part of Session in Deadlock
The Conference on Disarmament (CD) concluded the first third of
its three-part annual session on March 29 without starting any treaty
negotiations and with little prospect that negotiations will begin
when the conference resumes May 13.
Speaking the day before the CD ended its first round of the year,
Chinese Ambassador Hu Xiaodi left little doubt that the U.S.-Chinese
standoff over negotiating priorities for the conference would continue.
Hu told the conference that China believed the prevention of an
arms race in outer space was “just as important…if not
more” than a fissile material cutoff treaty, which would ban
production of the key materials needed to make nuclear weapons.
Hu made clear that China favors negotiations on both subjects.
Yet the United States staunchly opposes negotiations on the outer
space issue. The United States, which is pressing for the immediate
negotiation of a cutoff treaty, maintains that it would consent
to outer space discussions, but nothing more.
Although neither Washington nor Beijing signaled any intent of
yielding, other CD members expressed frustration with the continuing
stalemate. Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bill Graham
reminded the UN body on March 19 that it “does not exist merely
for the sake of debate.” Speaking at the close of February,
German CD Ambassador Volker Heinsberg succinctly summed up the state
of the conference, claiming it does “not look very promising.”
The conference, which has only held negotiations for a couple of
weeks in August 1998 since completing the 1996 Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty, requires consensus among its 66 country delegations
to begin any treaty negotiation. Although unable to start any negotiations
during its first several weeks, the conference appointed three special
coordinators to look at reviewing the CD’s agenda, expanding
its membership, and improving its operation. These coordinators
will submit reports on their findings before the CD concludes this
year’s session on September 13. Special coordinators have been
established in previous years on these same subjects.
U.S. Offers Fighters, Advanced Missiles to
Brazil
The Pentagon informed Congress April 18 that the United States
would try to sell 12 F-16C/D fighter jets and 48 advanced air-to-air
missiles to Brazil in a deal that could be worth $909 million. U.S.
inclusion of the AIM-120C Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles
(AMRAAMs) would be the first sale of a U.S. beyond-visual-range
missile to a Latin American country.
U.S. policy bars introducing AMRAAMs into regions where comparable
missiles do not already exist. Until last year, it was not certain
whether such a missile existed in Latin America, but Peru has publicly
confirmed it owns the Russian-made AA-12 Adder missile, which is
similar to the AMRAAM.
If Brazil opts for the F-16, it would be the second sale of U.S.
fighter jets to a Latin American country since President Bill Clinton’s
August 1997 reversal of a 20-year-old U.S. policy effectively banning
advanced weapon sales to the region. Chile signed a deal for 10
F-16C/D aircraft February 1. (See ACT,
March 2002.)
The U.S. F-16 offer is one of five proposals Brazil is weighing.
Other offers include two Russian-made fighters, one Swedish-British
combat aircraft, and a joint proposal, considered by many to be
the front runner, from a French and Brazilian team to build the
Mirage 2000-5 fighter. Brazil is expected to make a decision in
June.
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