Riots over the Middle East and South Asia get everyone’s
attention, but a clear and present danger to the United States
homeland exists that virtually no one is talking about and for
which we have no defense: missile attack.
A Russian military officials says the recent covert visit of one
of their submarines to the Gulf of Mexico proves that they could,
without difficulty, launch a missile high over the U.S. that could
trigger the explosion of an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) bomb that
would shut down virtually all electrical and electronic activity in
a large swath of the nation. There would be no radiation, no deaths
— “only” economic paralysis and chaos.
Add Iran and North Korea to the list of potential launchers of
such a weapon.
While we have worked for months to develop missile defense
capabilities in Europe to protect against a possible Iranian attack
there, we have only tested such systems from bases in California
and Alaska. Nothing is ready to deploy and given the threat of
“sequestration” of large amounts of defense funds, that situation
is unlikely to change.
While Congress and the Administration stew and stall over the
sequestration issue, the danger is both clear and present and there
is something we can do to protect the U.S. homeland from such
attacks. It is called the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense
Elevated Netter Sensor. That mouthful is shortened to JLENS.
The Army developed JLENS to detect, identify, track and engage
multiple hostile targets, including low-flying cruise missiles, as
well as those launched from submarines and merchant vessels. The
threat is that such attacks might involve EMP, chemical or
biological weapons.
JLENS is deceptively simple, consisting of two lighter-than-air
ships that lift to 10,000 feet (or more) both a fire-control and
surveillance radar from where they detect potentially hostile
targets at ranges of more than 200 miles. It gives field commanders
considerable advance warning of threats. The system was tested
successfully last April at the Utah Test and Training Range,
destroying a simulated hostile cruise missile with a Patriot
missile.
Development of JLENS has involved an investment of $2 billion so
far. The next step is to answer requests from combat commands for
this system by testing it again in the field to fine-tune it.
Congress appropriated $40.3 million for such a test; however,
before it could be conducted, the Department of Defense asked
Congress to allow these funds to be reprogrammed for other
purposes, presumably including budget balancing in the face of
sequestration.
Since its creation in the 1950s, the Committee on the Present
Danger has focused on the changing nature of threats to the United
States. With the potential threat to the U.S. homeland increasing
daily, the Committee
has written to the Secretary of Defense to urge him to withdraw
the request to reprogram the funds so that development of JLENS can
proceed. Its cost, in the greater scheme of things, is low when
measured against the nature and growth of the threat to our
homeland.
Mr. Hannaford is member of the board of directors of
the Committee on the Present Danger.
