U.S. Will Upgrade Missile Defense Radar in U.K.

London will permit the United States to upgrade a U.S. radar based on British territory in order to enable better tracking of ballistic missiles in flight, British Secretary of Defense Geoffrey Hoon announced February 5.

Located at Fylingdales, the early-warning radar is envisioned by the Bush administration as an important part of its missile defense efforts, tracking any missile launched from the Middle East or North Africa toward the United States. The radar cannot currently provide the quality of information that the United States wants, so the Bush administration asked London in December 2002 if work could be done to improve the radar.

At this time, the sole U.S. radar considered capable of providing some tracking capability of ballistic missiles to the Pentagon’s proposed missile defense system is in Alaska and fixed to face northwest toward Asia and Russia, offering no capability to help counter a missile traveling from the direction of the Near East. No country in that region is currently thought to possess a missile capable of striking the United States.

Hoon’s announcement marks an agreement in principle to allow the upgrades to take place. The two governments are negotiating a more formal memorandum of understanding, which is expected to include provisions enabling British companies to compete for work on the project.

Much of the upgrade will involve updating computer hardware and software. There will be no changes to the radar’s “external appearance or power output,” according to Hoon.

The defense secretary further stated that agreeing to the upgrade does not commit the United Kingdom to any additional cooperation with the United States on missile defenses. Hoon added, however, that the agreement does “keep open the prospect of acquiring missile defense capabilities for the U.K., should we desire such protection at some point in the future.”

Denmark has yet to reply to a similar U.S. request for a radar located on Greenland, which is Danish territory. A public hearing on the issue by the Danish parliament is set for April 23, and no reply is expected before then.