The “Special Relationship” and the missile defense debate in Britain

LONDON—British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon spent the first two years of the millennium acting like a club bouncer to prevent any substantive debate in parliament on missile defense. He reasoned that any debate would be premature, because the Bush administration had not made a formal request for the use of Fylingdales radar station to help protect the American homeland.
Then, rather surprisingly, in the autumn of 2002, a U.S. Missile Defense Agency official said this was basically a “done deal.” Either someone neglected to inform Britain of that, or the pending invasion of Iraq delayed an official announcement.

The formal request finally did arrive—on Dec. 17, 2002—and was formally agreed to on Feb. 5, 2003, just eight weeks and a Christmas recess later.

The Bush administration is determined to have some missile interceptor batteries deployed at Fort Greely in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California before the presidential election in November. Work at Fylingdales to support these batteries is due to start this month. The Boeing Corporation has been awarded the $111 million contract for the upgrade. Planning authorization from the North Yorkshire Moors National Parks Authority was deemed unnecessary.

In his parliamentary statement of December 17, 2002, Geoff Hoon said, “The decision on Fylingdales upgrade is an important one, and the [British] government is keen for it to be informed by public and Parliamentary discussion. We shall ensure that this House has appropriate opportunities to debate the issue in the new year.”

The House of Commons Defense Committee had a different, rather stronger view: “The Committee strongly regrets the way in which the issue has been handled by the Government [which] has shown no respect for either the views of those affected locally by the decision or for the arguments of those opposed to the upgrade in principle.”

Ultimately, there was no substantive debate on missile defence in British Parliament 2003. The Iraq war, the battle between government and the BBC, the death of Dr Kelly and the Hutton Inquiry all intervened.

Now, time has come for the “Big Conversation.” The British-U.S. “Special Relationship” is about to come under serious scrutiny in Parliament and in the British media.

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Russia has designed a “revolutionary” weapon that would make the prospective American missile defence useless, Russian news agencies reported Monday, quoting a senior Defence Ministry official. The official, who was not identified by name, said tests conducted during last month’s military manoeuvres would dramatically change the philosophy behind development of Russia’s nuclear forces. If deployed, the new weapon would take the value of any US missile shield to “zero,” the news agencies quoted the official as saying.