Missile Defenders: “Yes, sir, We’re Ready!”
Adm. Timothy Keating is a believer.
He was in a secure command center when U.S. missile defenses were trained on an errant spy satellite last year, when it was blown to bits.
“I saw the IR camera go blank as they scored a direct hit. Interestingly, in the command center nobody started hollering or cheering. It’s, ‘Okay we hit it. We were supposed to hit it. Next?’”
The white haired admiral (who bears a slight resemblance to his civilian boss Robert Gates) is about to hang up his stars after 42 years in a navy uniform. He has a unique perspective, having served as U.S. Northern Commander, charged with protecting the homeland, and now as U.S. Pacific Commander, where North Korea’s nuclear and missile program was one of his big worries.
So as his commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama, is weighing how much to spend on, and how fast to deploy, “anti-missile” missiles, Keating has some parting advice, namely that missile defense is worth every penny, “The system works. It’s complicated, it’s complex, it’s sophisticated, it’s a system of systems… but I am confident it works,” said Keating at an on-the-record Washington breakfast with veteran defense reporters.
I asked him about it, because I’ve been hearing some low-level grumbling from some inside the Pentagon — and some outside analysts such as James Carafano — who think perhaps the President’s campaign commitment to fund missile defense, “if it works,” might be wavering, especially with so many other pressing concerns, including health care reform and two wars.
“I don’t think we should take the foot off the accelerator, Jamie,” Keating told me. “I think that we are on a path that provides significantly increased security for the United States and its citizens, and increasingly our friends and allies.”
While Keating’s immediate concern is North Korea, he believes missile defense is a “viable enterprise” for Europe as well.
But Keating — who was directly involved in monitoring North Korea missile tests in both 2006 and 2009 — says he takes comfort in the fact that even now, with only a rudimentary system up and running, the U.S. has options it didn’t have before, should the worst case happen.
“It was singularly comforting to me to realize the capabilities at our disposal in 2006 and 2009, that we didn’t have when I was a younger guy. And those capabilities, while not inexpensive, are increasingly essential to our overarching role of protect and defend the homeland,” Keating said.
“In conversation with the national command authorities, [when we ask] are you ready to execute the mission if we pick up the phone and call you? The answer is: ‘Yes sir, we’re ready.’”
Mr. Obama, are you listening?
Tags: Keating, Missile Defense, North Korea, Obama
