"Son of Star Wars" - UK premiere

[Banish]

see also
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2019754,00.html

UK in talks with US to host 'son of Star Wars'
http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/feb2007/starwarsuk.html
By Richard Alleyne 23.02.2007

Britain is in negotiations with the US over the possibility of siting part of its controversial “son of Star Wars” missile defence system on UK soil, the Government confirmed today.

Washington announced in January it had begun negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic. Reports claimed that Tony Blair has lobbied the US president for the system in competition to Poland and the Czech Republic.

A spokesman for Downing Street admitted that early-stage discussions were underway but said at this point Britain's was simply bidding to be “kept in consideration” as the US develops plans for the system.

The system uses radar and satellites to detect enemy missile launches and to guide interceptors to their targets.
The US, which already has silos in Alaska and California, claims it could provide protection from “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea, but Russia says it will trigger a new arms race.

The Downing Street spokesman said talks had not yet reached the stage of considering precisely which elements might be sited in the UK.

He said: “We have certainly been engaged in conversations with the US about this. The objective of these conversations was to make sure that the UK is kept in consideration to be one of the locations for the system should the US press ahead with the system.

“It is purely about being part of the conversation. These discussions are at a very early stage. “No party to these discussions has got as far as discussing the specifics. We are simply at the stage where we have decided we want to be part of the discussion.”

The spokesman was unable to confirm BBC reports suggesting that Tony Blair had raised the issue directly with US President George Bush and that the Prime Minister had charged his chief foreign affairs adviser Sir Nigel Sheinwald with liaising with the US National Security Council about the missiles.

Downing Street played down a report in The Economist suggesting that Mr Blair had been “discreetly waging a campaign since last autumn to secure the missile-interceptor site for Britain”.

The magazine said that Mr Blair had become convinced that the anti-ballistic missile system could work and that siting it in Britain would provide the UK as well as the US with an effective defence against attack. It suggested that a new missile silo could be sited at an existing US military base in the UK, but not at RAF Fylingdales in Yorkshire, which already houses early-warning radar equipment used in the system.

Talks are under way about the possibility of constructing a silo for 10 further interceptors in Europe to provide defence against any long-range missile fired from the Middle East, said the Economist.

Britain’s decision in 2003 to upgrade facilities at Fylingdales to support the “son of Star Wars” system sparked enormous controversy and was bitterly opposed by some Labour MPs.

It is understood that the US is also interested in building a new radar station on the territory of a Nato ally in Europe, but no announcements have been made about the location of any new facilities.

The Downing Street spokesman said that the Economist article “goes too far” in its presentation of the state of discussions, but did not cite any specific inaccuracies.

The Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said the Government needed to be “honest” about the negotiations.
He said: “We have had no details at all from the Government, despite asking a lot of questions in Parliament. “Clearly there is an increasing threat but we need to be getting an awful lot more details from the Government.

“We would want to be involved in discussions about the abilities of the technology, the potential benefits and to look at the potential risks coming from increased defence programmes in countries like Iran and Russia.”

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Alok Jha. Feb 23, 2007

Missile defence systems sound like science fiction. And sometimes they are.

For a generation brought up on James Bond, the idea of missile defence is bound to end up bordering on the melodramatic.

Using missiles and lasers to intercept and destroy other missiles somewhere out in space - wait, that's a plot thought up by Spectre's Ernest Bloefeld isn't it?

Or perhaps Austin Powers' nemesis, the maniacal Dr Evil? (continues......)