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With proposals now afoot for a missile test range in W.A, that according to
West Australian press will be involved in the controversial National
Missile Defence plan, with a statement some two weeks ago from foreign
minister Downer that Australia 'understands' US plans to proceed with NMD,
and with possible Australian involvement in NMD via Pine Gap being
suggested by US Defence Secretary Cohen, the time has come, according to
the Australian Peace Committee, the Anti-Bases Campaign, and FOE, for
Australia to say a clear 'no' to NMD.
According to the Anti-Bases Campaign, APC, PND-WA, and FOE:
"On the 29th of June, the Australian Senate voted against Ballistic Missile
Defence (BMD), or as the current scheme is called, National Missile Defence
(NMD) - Star Wars by another name. BMD/Star Wars will violate the
Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, and will give rise to another arms race.
Country after country has asked the US not to proceed with BMD/Star Wars,
and within the US, 50 Nobel prizewinners have asked the US government to
give up the idea as have the American Physical Society, the Federation of
Atomic Scientists, Congresspeople, Generals, and church people."
"In the light of last months Senate vote against BMD/Star Wars, and in the
light of widespread international opposition to this scheme, and most
particularly in the light of the extremely destabilizing potential of
BMD/Star Wars to create another nuclear arms race, Australia should be
using its position as a close ally of the US to send a clear message to
Washington - the same message that has been sent by Canada, Germany,
France, and the EU - No BMD/Star Wars."
John Hallam, 9517-3903 h9810-2598
Denis Doherty, Anti-Bases Campaign, 0418-290-663
Ron Gray, Australian Peace Committee, 08-8364-2291
Jo Vallentine, 08-9272-4252
RESIDENTS of northern WA are up in arms over a proposal to use the area to test American missiles.
United States and Australian defence officials have slated WA as home to a
site from which to launch ballistic missiles for US warships to use as target practice.
The plan could draw the State into an international row over weapons proliferation.
An Australian Defence Department spokesman said the North-West and Kimberley
region was being considered for a facility which could be built within five years.
But he cautioned there was still a big question mark over whether the
facility would go ahead. Royal Australian Navy officers and US defence
officials visited the region recently to scout for a possible site.
Analysts said one site being considered was a secret location between Broome
and Port Hedland where the US and Australia launched four unarmed missiles
to test tracking systems in 1997.
Derby-West Kimberley Shire Council president Peter McCumstie said he had not heard of the plans.
"But I will be asking about it now, you betcha," he said.
Mr McCumstie said native title would be a major consideration if a new facility was to be built.
"If they were looking for new land they would have to go way out into the desert," he said.
Labor MLC Tom Stephens said local industry could be devastated and all
details should be revealed so people could make an informed reaction.
"While it may make sense to some boffins in Washington or Canberra to stick
(this facility) in an isolated part of the world, it could kill the
pearling, fishing and tourism industries."
Plans to build the testing site would draw Australia further into the debate
over the controversial US national missile defence system.
Australian defence officials say they are resisting pressure from the US to
cooperate in the test range north of Broome.
The navy prefers American help for a range on the east coast.
But defence experts said Australia was almost certainly investigating
participation in a joint facility in WA, because it made strategic sense to
become involved in the US missile defence scheme.
This system has been tagged "son of Star Wars" in reference to former US
President Ronald Regan's proposal to shoot incoming missiles from space with a laser.
It would put missiles on Alaskan soil capable of intercepting
intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Countries such as Australia could host theatre missile defence systems which
could destroy short-range missiles.
China and Russia have criticised the plans for destabilising the nuclear balance.
CANBERRA
THE Royal Australian Navy says it is engaged in a fierce tug of war with the
United States over the location of a future missile test range, with the
Pentagon pushing for a facility in the Kimberley.
Defence officials say they are resisting pressure from the US to cooperate
in a joint ballistic missile test range north of Broome. Instead, the navy
is trying to get American cooperation for a range on the east coast to test
wave-skimming missiles.
But defence experts dismissed that as a smokescreen, claiming Australia was
almost certainly investigating participation in a joint facility in WA,
because it made strategic sense to become involved in the US missile defence scheme.
RAN officers accompanied US defence officials on a recent visit to the
remote WA region to scout for a possible site. But defence spokesman Colin
Blair said a site had not been identified.
Instead, the navy wanted to set up a range to test sea-skimming missiles on
the Beecroft peninsula, near Jervis Bay in NSW, because this was the kind of
weaponry more likely to be used against Australian ships.
"The Americans have been lobbying us over the ballistic missile test range -
they are not so much interested in our sea skimming missiles," Mr Blair said.
"They like the look of the North-West of WA, it is nice and remote and there
is very little commercial air traffic. But the navy is not interested in
that. We don't see that as a major threat to our region."
Mr Blair said the ballistic missile facility was well behind the Beecroft
peninsula facility in terms of priority. The navy would begin a feasibility
study into the latter in six months, with a view to completion of the site by 2005.
Michael O'Connor, from the Australian Defence Association, said the Defence
Department was trying to divert attention from the fact that it was getting
involved in the contentious US defence strategy to build a missile defence shield.
The move would anger neighbours - especially Beijing, which fears the
technology would be used to protect Taiwan from attack should the two
countries come to blows if China tries to force reunification.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials said yesterday they
expected China to protest strongly against Australia's involvement in a US
missile defence system during meetings with South-East Asian leaders later
this week in Bangkok.
KIMBERLEY councils are flabbergasted at plans to test United States
ballistic missile defences in the area.
Critics say the area is subject to native title claims and does not have
necessary roads or infrastructure.
They say existing defence facilities at the old Truscott air base, near
Kalumburu, the RAAF Curtin base, near Derby, or the army's Yampi training
ground, 100km north of Derby, would be more suitable.
International training exercises have taken place at Yampi in the past.
Derby-West Kimberley Shire president Peter McCumstie said he had never heard
of plans to test US missile defences in the area.
"But I will be asking about it now - you betcha," he said. "The other thing
I would suggest is that native title would have to be taken into
consideration and they would probably have to search for an existing site.
"If they were looking for new land they would have to go way out into the desert."
Labor MLC Tom Stephens said the result could be devastating to the
environment and the tourism industry.
"We want all the details on the table so the community can make an informed
reaction," he said. "While it may make sense to some boffins in Washington
or Canberra to stick it in an isolated part of the world, it could kill the
pearling, fishing and tourism industries."
Greens (WA) MLC Giz Watson said such activities in the North-West would
contravene the 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.
But Kalgoorlie MHR Barry Haase said plans were still in their infancy.
"If this conception analysis progresses to the stage where it might ever be
considered to be viable, it will then take into consideration all manner of
things," he said.
Mr Haase said the plan would be open to heavy public scrutiny.
Broome Shire Council president Kevin Fong called on the Federal Government
to keep local councils informed during the planning stage.
Wyndham-East Kimberley Shire chief executive Tony Brown said he would ask
the Defence Department for an explanation.
FOUR ballistic missiles were fired from the north of WA in 1997, tracked as
they travelled 117km through the air at high speed and allowed to land in the ocean.
At the time, the Defence Department stressed that the "scientific
experiments" were not an indication of plans to create a ballistic missile defence system.
Three years later, Australia is under considerable pressure from the United
States to help its controversial missile defence shield project and the site
of the 1997 launch appears an ideal home for a permanent defence training ground.
Prominent aviation journal Flight International reported last month that the
US and Australia planned to build a major training range in WA.
According to reports, the exercise range would allow both nations to
practise destroying ballistic missiles while still in flight over the
country which deployed them.
The US has caused considerable international disquiet in recent months with
its plans to create defence shields against short-range ballistic missiles,
which can release warheads within about 10 minutes of launching.
Peter La Franchi, author of the Flight International report, said Australia
and the US planned to build in three or four years a testing facility north
of Broome. Missiles could be in the air as soon as 2004 or 2006.
Mr La Franchi told a Perth radio station yesterday the US navy could detect
missiles within minutes of their release from silos and had been looking for
a suitable site to test that technology.
"Since 1996 the Americans have been looking for a site somewhere in the
world scarce enough of human beings to allow a basic experiment to take
place," he said. "Can a warship shoot down a missile over land just minutes
after the launch? Australia has been the logical focus."
Mr La Franchi said the site of the 1997 tests was the place being considered
for the new facility.
Those tests, though conducted with a degree of publicity, were held at a
secret location, somewhere along a 600km stretch of coast between Port
Hedland and Broome.
Four Terrier-Improved-Orion rockets were fired from a coastal site between
Broome and Port Hedland and were tracked by Australia's Jindalee
over-the-horizon radar.
The 14m rockets were not armed and simulated ballistic missiles similar to
the Scud missiles fired by Iraq during the Gulf war.
Yesterday, the Defence Department said the Australian navy had no interest
in learning to fire on ballistic missiles, though a spokesman conceded it
was of interest to the US.
Navy spokesman Colin Blair said Australia was focused on learning to destroy
surface skimming missiles at the east coast firing range in Jervis Bay.
Any further tests in northern WA were "way off our radar".
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