U.S. Response:  Rumsfeld Focuses on Homeland Defense and WMD Threats

By Kerry Boyd
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military’s primary goals are protecting bases of operations, particularly the U.S. homeland, and defeating weapons of mass destruction, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in his Annual Report to the President and the Congress, released Thursday.

“Above all, U.S. forces must protect critical bases of operations and defeat weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.  No base of operations is more important than the U.S. homeland,” the report says.

The report presents strategies to transform the military to better protect the homeland while combating terrorism abroad and calls for improving defenses against WMD threats and enhancing conventional capabilities.  It emphasizes the need to respond to asymmetric threats and identifies “uncertainty and surprise” as the “defining characteristics of the 21^st century security environment.”

WMD and Missile Threats

Part of the uncertainty regarding future threats is due to increasing WMD proliferation and decreasing U.S. ability to determine how rapidly hostile countries or organizations will be able to acquire nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, according to the report.

“Future adversaries will have a range of new means with which to threaten the United States, both at home and abroad.  These means will include new forms of terrorism — advanced nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, ballistic and cruise missiles and weapons of mass disruption, such as information warfare attacks on critical information infrastructure,” the report says.

Specifically, the report cites the countries President George W. Bush listed as members of an “axis of evil” in January as posing a WMD threat — Iraq, Iran and North Korea (see GSN, Jan. 30).  The three countries “are arming with long-range missiles and are seeking or acquiring nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapons” in addition to supporting “global terrorist organizations,” the report says.

Terrorists are also pursuing WMD capabilities and pose a serious threat to the United States, the report says.

“Terrorist networks and their supporters are exploiting globalization and actively seek NBC [nuclear, biological and chemical] technology.  There can be little doubt that terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda that possessed such weapons would attempt to use them,” it says.

In addition to terrorist groups and the states that support them, there are countries where authorities are unable to control terrorist activities and therefore pose “a threat to stability and places demands on U.S. forces,” the report says.  “Conditions in some states, including some with nuclear weapons, demonstrate that threats can grow out of the weakness of governments as much as out of their strength,” it adds.

The report specifically says that Russia is no longer a U.S. enemy and that the Cold War ended more than a decade ago, but it also says the country “pursues a number of policy objectives contrary to U.S. interests, both overt and covert” (see GSN, Aug. 5).

The United States also faces a threat from adversaries who might acquire the means to deliver weapons of mass destruction, the report says.  Hostile states and terrorist groups “will seek to acquire and use” weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, and ballistic missile proliferation “has exceeded earlier intelligence estimates,” according to the report.

“It is quite clear that over time an increasing number of states have and will acquire cruise and ballistic missiles of steadily increasing range,” it says.

Combating the Threat

The Defense Department is working to combat the WMD threat through various means, such as science and technology programs to defend against biological threats, improving intelligence and preparing for preventive action and perhaps preemption, but the report emphasizes missile defense. 

The department “has refocused its missile defense program to better defend U.S. territory, deployed forces, allies and friends against ballistic missiles of any range,” the report says.  The Missile Defense Agency was created in January to provide for more integrated development of missile defense, and the agency has received funding “to develop and test a layered missile defense system” and to bring prototype and test systems into operation as soon as possible (see GSN, Jan. 7).

The military has also developed a new strategy that “restores the emphasis once placed on defending the United States and its land, sea, air and space approaches,” the report says.  As part of the new strategy, the United States created a new Unified Command Plan to provide for homeland defense (see GSN, April 18).

Nuclear Forces

The report also addresses plans for changes in U.S. nuclear forces, based on the Nuclear Posture Review (see GSN, Jan. 9).  The report emphasizes reducing the nuclear arsenal while preserving flexibility to respond to “unexpected contingencies” and refurbish or possibly develop new weapons to meet defense needs.

“The United States plans to reduce its operationally deployed nuclear forces over the next decade to 1,700 to 2,200 warheads while maintaining the flexibility necessary to accommodate changes in the security environment that could affect U.S. nuclear requirements,” the report says, adding that the United States needs “a sufficient number of forces” ready to deploy on short notice in addition to a “small, additional margin.”

“It is unlikely that a reduced version of the Cold War nuclear arsenal will be precisely the nuclear force the United States will require in 2012 and beyond,” the report says.

The report repeats the Nuclear Posture Review’s emphasis on shifting from the current nuclear triad — including intercontinental ballistic missiles, aircraft and submarine-launched ballistic missiles — to a new triad based on a more diverse mix of nuclear and conventional systems.  Nuclear weapons remain a critical part of the U.S. defense plan, but they are “unsuited to many of the contingencies for which the U.S. prepares,” and so a mix of capabilities is required, the report says.

For further information, see:

MDA Basics of Missile Defense

MDA Missile Defense System

U.S. Missile Defense 2002 Budget

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U.S. Response:  White House Appoints Counterterrorism Assistant

The White House last week announced that Rand Beers has been appointed as special assistant to the president and senior director for combating terrorism.  Beers has served for the last four years as assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs.  He has also served three times on the staff of the National Security Council (U.S. State Department release, Aug. 19).

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