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MDA BMDS PEIS
C/o ICF Consulting
9300 Lee Highway
Fairfax, VA 22031
United States of America

Dear ICF Consulting,
RE: DRAFT PROGRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR THE BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM

I am writing to you as Chair, and on behalf of, the Menwith Hill Forum on the draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the Ballistic Missile Defence System.

The Menwith Hill Forum is an independent body which represents local Councils, local Members of Parliament and Members of the European Parliament, county peace groups and local concerned citizens seeking greater accountability and transparency of the American surveillance station at Menwith Hill in north Yorkshire.
Given that the British Government has announced that the nearby Fylingdales base will be a component part of the missile defence system, and that Menwith Hill will also be involved in some way in this warning system, the Forum considers it is important to make a comment on the PEIS.

It is the Forum’s understanding that the PEIS analyses the potential environmental impacts of developing, testing, deploying and planning the Ballistic Missile Defence system. The PEIS also considers three options with taking forward the system – either to develop missile defences without space-based weapons, to develop with space-based weapons, or to take ‘no action at all’.

From the information provided in the PEIS, and considering the Missile Defence Agency (MDA) website, the Ballistic Missile Defence System is a layered system of weapons, sensors and other forms of communications to provide a ‘defensive’ shield against all types of missile attacks against the United States (though it gives no protection to the United Kingdom, despite UK – based sites involved in the system).

It is the view of the Forum that the US Department of Defence should re-write the PEIS to ensure that the ‘no action at all’ alternative actually gives the option to stop the expansion of this environmentally dangerous and politically destabilising system. It is our understanding that the ‘no action at all’ option actually allows the Department of Defence to continue all work on the system, which will mislead many opposed to development of this system.
The Forum would also like to make a number of specific points in support of this view and to emphasise some of our more general concerns –

  • The Forum’s primary concern is that the Ballistic Missile Defence as outlined in the PEIS will be potentially highly destabilising in political terms as it is likely to lead to a new arms race in space weaponry with the United States, Russia, European countries and China all likely to get involved to prevent any single state becoming dominant in this sphere. ‘States of concern’, such as North Korea, are also likely to potentially react negatively to this development as well.
  • The Forum is also highly concerned that the development of the system will place the populations around the Menwith Hill and Fylingdales bases to a greater risk of a terrorist attack using conventional bombs or a ‘dirty bomb’ type of device.
  • The testing and deployment of space weaponry is likely to create a major environmental problem in increasing large amounts of space debris. This would be hazardous for peaceful space flights and for conventional satellite systems.
  • The costs of the system are likely to be immense. Such resources could be used on promoting a more peaceful world, including combating climate change.
  • The PEIS also mentions the likely use of nuclear power in space-based weaponry. This is inherently dangerous and could create a potentially environmental catastrophe of a far greater magnitude than occurred at Chernobyl in 1986.
  • The US Space Command’s ‘Vision for 2020’ asserts that the missile defence system will be ‘offensive’ rather than ‘defensive’ (countering the PEIS) as it notes that the United States will ‘deny’ other nations the use of space. Space should be protected from being used in such an exploitative way, as has occurred in the international agreements governing the continent of Antarctica.
  • The toxic pollution from the exhausts of the many rockets being blasted into space is having a dangerous effect on the hole in the ozone layer. This plan will expand the amount of rockets being sent into space and exacerbate this major problem even further.
  • The Forum would also like to ask why the PEIS is only being undertaken for component bases in the United States and not on bases overseas, such as with Fylingdales. The local residents around Menwith Hill and Fylingdales remain very concerned over the environmental and public security issues that may occur with the development of the missile defence system and wish to be consulted fully on this.
  • I would appreciate acknowledgement of this letter and to keep the Forum informed of future developments in this area and with the PEIS in general.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor John Eveleigh
Chair of the Menwith Hill Forum