With the worsening of relations between the U.S. and Russia, the increasing hostility of North Korea and ongoing concerns about a possible nuclear weapons program in Iran, investment in anti-ballistic missiles systems to protect the U.S. has increased. The Ohio State Congressional delegation would like to see Ravenna, Ohio selected to be the host of battery of missiles to protect the East Coast.
Last week, the Pentagon announced that the U.S. Secretary of Defense and President Trump will make a decision about siting U.S. missile defenses in the Ballistic Missile Defense Review which may be released as soon as early March. The question being considered is whether or not the Trump Administration is willing to spend as much as three billion six hundred million dollars in the construction of a third site in the continental U.S. that could provide ballistic missile defense for cities on the U.S. East Coast. If the answer to that question is “yes”, then a new site could be selected by May of this year.
President Trump is apparently more interested in expanding U.S. ballistic missile defenses than President Obama was. He has requested almost ten billion dollars for missile defense in 2019. The continuing belligerent statements coming from North Korea regarding nuclear war and their testing of missiles that could hit the U.S. have supported his request.
Currently there are two sites that host anti-ballistic missiles in the U.S. One site is in Alaska at Fort Greely. There are forty interceptors stationed there because the greatest threat to the U.S. is across the Pacific Ocean. Vandenberg Air Force Base in California hosts four interceptors.
While it is still not known whether or not the U.S. will be investing in a third anti-ballistic missile base, there are three finalists sites for hosting one. Camp Ravenna Joint Military Training Center is the Ohio candidate. Fort Custer Training Center near Battle Creek, Michigan is a second candidate. And Fort Drum in New Your near Syracuse is the third candidate.
If it is decided that there should be a third anti-missile base, it would bring a couple of thousand constructions jobs and almost a thousand full time employees to the selected site. The Ohio Congressional delegation says that Ohio has the open space, the dedicated acreage, river and rail transport, construction experience and the workforce needed for such a site. They also point out that their site is close to the NASA Glenn Research Center and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright–Patterson Air Force Base where ballistic missile threats are assessed.
James McKeon of the Center for Arms Control and Non–Proliferation said that an East Coast anti-missile base would be used primarily to protect the U.S. East Coast from Iran but not North Korea. Intercontinental ballistic missiles would be fired north to cross over the Pole and then head south to hit a target. He said that the technology is not perfected and that even with optimal conditions for tests, missile interceptors only have about a fifty percent rate of hitting their targets. McKeon said that “The problem is there is no evidence thus far that this system is very effective. In fact, all the evidence suggests it cannot be relied upon to protect the United States homeland.”
