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Iran Has Missile Capability to Threaten Continental Europe

by Riki Ellison, President, Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance - 02/27/07 12:22 PM ET

Iran has over 20 intermediate range missiles, these 20 BM-25 missiles were purchased from North Korea in 2005, which are Soviet SS-N-6 submarine ballistic missiles and have a range beyond 3,000 kilometers.

The leadership of Iran declared their intent last week to build and launch orbital satellites. This type of ballistic technology would give Iran the capability to deliver payloads to anyplace on earth, as was first powerfully demonstrated 50 years ago by the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik in 1957.

A third site defensive missile site in Europe would need to be placed in Central Europe to offer protection to all of continental Europe against Iranian intermediate and long range ballistic missiles as well as future missile threats from the Middle East.

This third site has been narrowed down to the Country of Poland of which our government is currently negotiating for the placement of the missile defense site that would hold up to 10 ground based interceptors.

The United States has approximately 56,000 United States troops in Europe and Kosovo, countless American citizens, as well as billions of dollars of U.S. military assets to protect against possible threats from Iran and the Middle East as missile and nuclear proliferation continues to go unabated.

NATO forces and the nations of Europe cannot be held hostage or be coerced by the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles or future proliferating nations and entities from the Middle East.

This proposed missile defense system in Poland poses no offensive threat to any nation, including Russia, as it is purely a defensive system that makes use of no offensive weapons, but makes intercepts in space by colliding into the incoming missile at very high speeds.

It is imperative that we, as a nation and as a world, continue to move ahead with urgency to fund, build, and deploy a ground based missile defense site in Poland and the accompanying radar site in the Czech Republic that will defend and protect Europe.