A senior U.S. military official yesterday touted the value of an ongoing U.S.-Israeli missile defense drill in honing the capabilities of a planned European missile defense network, Reuters reported (see GSN, Oct. 21).
The Obama administration unveiled a plan last month to field sea- and land-based versions of the Standard Missile 3 system to protect Europe from possible short- and medium-range missiles launched from Iran (see related GSN story, today). The system would rely heavily on Aegis technology-equipped warships like those participating in the two-week-long joint exercise, dubbed Juniper Cobra.
"In this series of exercises we continue to advance our understanding of the art and the science of ballistic missile defense," Rear Adm. John Richardson, the U.S. manager of the exercise, said at a news conference.
"This exercise is not directly related to recent announcements about ballistic missile defense in Europe, but the lessons and the insights that we gain from this exercise will certainly relate to developing that capability," Richardson said.
Neither Richardson nor Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish, Israel's commander for the exercise, would confirm reports that the exercise was intended primarily as practice for defending against an Iranian missile attack. Instead, they said that the drill would test the ability of various U.S. missile defense systems to interface with Israel's Arrow 2 missile defense technology.
The drill would also prepare the nations to carry out a rapid "enhancement" of Israeli missile defenses in the event of a crisis, they said, denying reports that systems delivered to Israel for the exercise would remain in place indefinitely (see GSN, Sept. 9; Dan Williams, Reuters, Oct. 22).