NEWS BRIEFS
Open Skies Flights Begin
U.S. Opens Door for Arms Sales to Afghanistan
China Reportedly Tests Air-to-Air
Missile
CNN Tapes Generate Questions on al Qaeda
U.S. Steps up Missile Defense Marketing Abroad
Russia Opens CW Destruction Plant
Open Skies Flights Begin
In August, Russia conducted the first observation flights under
the Open Skies Treaty since the accord entered into force January
1. Other treaty states-parties, including the United States, are
expected to begin their permitted flights, which are designed to
allow countries to collect and verify information about each other’s
military forces, soon as well.
A Russian observation plane flew over the United Kingdom August
8 and over Germany the following week. Although Russia’s two
August flights marked the first official ones under the accord,
treaty signatories started conducting trial flights in 1993, a year
after the treaty was signed. For example, the United States conducted
77 total joint flights before the treaty entered into force.
Currently, 26 countries, including former members of the now-defunct
Warsaw Pact and all 19 NATO members, are states-parties to the Open
Skies Treaty and can take advantage of the accord’s provisions
to conduct short-notice, unarmed flights over the entire territory
of any other treaty member. Each member is assigned a specific number
of flights that it must allow over its territory annually.
The planes used to conduct the flights must be certified under
the treaty and can eventually be equipped with up to four different
types of sensors. Initially, however, planes will only be outfitted
with cameras. The sensors are supposed to be sensitive enough to
let the observing country distinguish between a tank and a truck
on the ground.
The United States had its treaty aircraft certified May 15 and
before December is planning to fly three missions over Russia, the
first of which is expected this September. France, Italy, and the
United Kingdom are also planning to conduct flyovers of Russia and
Belarus before the end of this year.
Since the treaty entered into force, members have agreed to allow
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and
Sweden to accede to the treaty. Each will become a state-party 60
days after depositing its instruments of ratification with either
Canada or Hungary, the treaty depositaries. Turkey is currently
blocking Cyprus’ effort to join the accord.
U.S. Opens Door for Arms Sales to
Afghanistan
On July 2, the State Department announced that, for the first time
in a decade, U.S. arms companies would be permitted to sell weapons
and military equipment to Afghanistan. Under the new policy, U.S.
arms manufacturers may make deals with the current Afghan government
or with UN-authorized international security forces in the country,
but arms exports to any other entity in Afghanistan remain outlawed.
Few export licenses have been requested since the policy change.
Near the end of August, the Office of Defense Trade Controls, which
licenses arms deals carried out directly between U.S. companies
and foreign customers, had approved one proposed deal for communications
equipment and was reviewing two other export requests. U.S. government
officials are not anticipating a flood of possible deals because
Afghanistan lacks the funds to make many purchases.
President Bush, however, signed the 2002 Supplemental Appropriations
Act August 2, which authorizes $50 million in Foreign Military Financing
(FMF) funds for Afghanistan and $20 million for peacekeeping efforts
there. Buyers of U.S. arms can use FMF financing, which comes in
the form of a grant or a loan, to make purchases of weaponry, military
hardware, services, or training from private U.S. companies or the
Pentagon. Initial Afghan buys are not expected to be for major weaponry
but for items such as canteens and uniforms.
Pentagon officials encouraged the State Department’s July
2 move because they wanted the policy governing commercial arms
sales to match their interest in allowing sales to Afghan President
Hamid Karzai’s government under the Foreign Military Sales
(FMS) program, which is administrated separately. It is not clear
exactly when the Pentagon decided to permit arms sales to Afghanistan
through the government-to-government FMS program, but the Pentagon
now considers Afghanistan an eligible recipient for U.S. arms.
The United States maintained an informal policy of denying all
weapons trade with Afghanistan or any entity in the country from
1992 until June 1996, when the policy became official.
China Reportedly Tests Air-to-Air
Missile
In late June, China test-fired Russian-made AA-12 Adder missiles,
also known as the R-77, for the first time, according to a July
1 Washington Times article. Acquisition and deployment of these
advanced dog-fighting missiles would give Chinese fighter aircraft
the capability of attacking targets from a distance of at least
50 kilometers.
The United States sold Taiwan a comparable U.S. missile, the AIM-120C
Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), in September
2000 but conditioned its delivery to Taiwan on another country in
the region getting a similar missile first. A State Department spokesperson
interviewed August 26 would not say whether the U.S. government
would now be delivering the 200 AMRAAMs to Taiwan, commenting only
that the United States intends to fulfill the terms of its contract.
A Pentagon spokesperson gave a similar line, but also pointed out
that the AMRAAMs for Taiwan have not been built yet.
According to a July 12 Pentagon report, a potential conflict in
the Taiwan Strait is the “primary driver” behind China’s
military modernization and arms acquisitions. The report declared
that Chinese offensive capabilities are improving annually, increasing
Beijing’s “number of credible options to intimidate or
actually attack Taiwan.”
China has also recently negotiated with Russia, its main arms supplier,
to buy eight diesel-electric Kilo-class attack submarines, adding
to the four it has already acquired. This recent deal mirrors a
U.S. offer in April 2001 to provide Taiwan with eight diesel-powered
submarines, although that deal is currently stalled. Washington
and Taipei have yet to determine whether Taiwan can actually afford
the submarines, and they also need to find a manufacturer because
the United States builds only nuclear-powered submarines.
CNN Tapes Generate Questions on al Qaeda
After obtaining several dozen videotapes from one of its correspondents
in Afghanistan, CNN aired footage August 18 that appears to show
al Qaeda members administering poison gas to dogs, but analysts
disagreed on whether the video demonstrated that the terrorist group
has a chemical weapons capability.
In one videotaped scene, men are seen leaving a small room with
a dog inside. Shortly after their departure, gas seeps into the
room. Over several minutes, the dog exhibits symptoms of chemical
poisoning, including increased salivation, muscle weakness, difficulty
breathing, and loss of consciousness.
Experts invited by CNN August 19 to evaluate the videotapes offered
conflicting judgments about the nature of the gas. David Kay, a
former United Nations weapons inspector who participated in searches
in Iraq, told CNN that he was confident “above a reasonable
doubt” that al Qaeda had released a nerve agent that killed
the animal. However, Frederick R. Sidell, a chemical weapons specialist
who worked at the Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense,
voiced doubt on whether it was a nerve agent, saying it was unclear
that the dog had even died.
Although the experts consulted by CNN characterized the videos
as highly significant, U.S. officials downplayed their importance.
Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Lapan told the Arms Control
Association, “[The tapes] don’t come as a surprise to
us.” Since last fall, U.S. forces overtaking the group’s
Afghan hideouts discovered notebooks containing chemical formulas
that indicated research into poison and bomb development. “Visits
to more than 60 different sites turned up evidence of intent to
develop those weapons, but no evidence that they succeeded,”
according to Lapan.
U.S. Steps up Missile Defense Marketing
Abroad
The Pentagon and U.S. arms companies have increased efforts following
the June 13 U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM)
Treaty to get foreign governments and businesses more involved in
U.S. missile defense programs, but their labors have yielded few
tangible results as yet.
Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, who directs U.S. missile defense
programs, has repeatedly said in recent months that one of the chief
benefits of withdrawing from the 1972 ABM Treaty was that it opened
the door to foreign participation in strategic missile defense work
against long-range ballistic missiles. The accord prohibited Washington
and Moscow from transferring any strategic missile defense systems
or components to other countries and, in Kadish’s words, from
sharing “blueprint data.”
Germany, Israel, Italy, and Japan are all currently participating
in theater missile defense projects with the United States to protect
against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, defenses the
ABM Treaty permitted.
The Pentagon held a series of July meetings with foreign governments
on ballistic missile defense, including a collective meeting with
NATO members July 18 in Brussels. Pentagon officials presented briefings
about the current ballistic missile threat as well as the status
of U.S. missile defense programs. They also outlined possible ways
in which foreign governments could contribute to or participate
in various missile defense projects.
U.S. officials further pressed NATO’s other 18 members to
agree to include a statement endorsing missile defense in their
final communiqué at the upcoming NATO summit in Prague, which
is scheduled for November 21-22.
Foreign reaction to the U.S. missile defense push has been mixed,
with Germany reportedly expressing the greatest reservation. Although
several key European countries made public their skepticism and
opposition to U.S. strategic missile defense plans a few years ago,
most European capitals have softened their tone after the U.S. treaty
withdrawal and Moscow’s muted response.
Boeing, a top contractor for U.S. missile defense systems, signed
agreements July 23 with three different European companies to explore
possible future cooperation on missile defense, although specific
projects or products have not been identified. The agreements, each
termed a “memorandum of understanding,” were concluded
with BAE Systems, a British company; Alenia Spazio, an Italian company;
and EADS, a joint French, German, and Spanish company.
Russia Opens CW Destruction Plant
Russia opened its first chemical weapons destruction plant in Gorny
August 21 but does not plan to begin actually destroying weapons
at the site until December.
Diplomats from Europe, the United States, and the Organization
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons attended a ceremony opening
the plant, which has been partially funded by international contributions.
Germany will have provided more than $39 million for the plant’s
construction by the end of 2002, making it Germany’s largest
nonproliferation project in Russia, according to the German embassy
in Washington. The European Union has also provided almost $5.9
million.
Russia’s July 2001 chemical demilitarization plan calls for
beginning operations at Gorny in 2002 and completing destruction
of the weapons stored at the plant, mostly mustard and lewisite
agents, by 2005. Under the plan, Russia would begin scrapping chemical
weapons at two other facilities, Shchuch’ye and Kambarka, in
2005. (See ACT,
September 2001.)
The Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia is a state-party,
calls for member states to destroy their chemical weapons stockpiles
by 2007, but the Russian plan indicates that Moscow will miss that
deadline and not complete its chemical demilitarization until 2012.
The convention allows for an extension of up to five years, and
Russia has asked the OPCW, which oversees implementation of the
CWC, to grant it extra time.
The United States has also said it will miss the 2007 deadline
because of delays in its chemical weapon destruction program. (See
ACT,
November 2001.)
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