... Gates frequently adds a bit of previously unknown history to his
answers. For example, last Thursday, while explaining to reporters about
the decision to shelve the plan to establish missile defense facilities
in the Czech Republic and Poland, he slipped in something he had not
disclosed before. He said, in speaking of Moscow's opposition to the
proposal, "that the radar that was going into the Czech Republic looked
deep into Russia and actually could monitor the launches of their ICBMs
as well." Up to that time, it was generally believed that the radar
would be directed only at Iran. No government official had publicly
acknowledged that the radar, which had a 360-degree capability, would be
able to see as far as the Caucasus Mountains inside Russia.
What's the News? Just Ask Secretary Gates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR200909
2103431.html
By Walter Pincus
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is someone whose words, whether in a
speech or a news conference, should always be examined. Held over from
the Bush administration, he has become the senior government official
who most speaks his mind and as a result provides a great deal of news,
especially if you look closely at what he says.
Last Wednesday, Gates spoke before the Air Force Association convention,
and afterward he answered questions that contained a variety of new
information.
Take what he said about cybersecurity, and the touchy subject of how to
integrate protection of strategically important governmental and
civilian databases and Internet communications.
Saying he was "sort of speaking a little out of turn here because I
can't speak for the administration as a whole," he called "wholly
unrealistic" the idea of replicating the Pentagon's National Security
Agency (NSA) and its site protection services (for the Defense
Department and other government sites) within the Department of Homeland
Security for civilian sites.
Although there has been some mention of that approach, Gates said the
government lacks the time, money and personnel to do it. "You just
couldn't create another NSA in a year or two," he said.
His solution for meeting concerns about possible civil liberties
violations with the NSA protecting civilian sites was "to double-hat a
deputy secretary or an undersecretary of the Department of Homeland
Security, and have that person also be a civilian deputy at NSA." Then,
he said, create firewalls to make sure "going after foreign threats do
not spill over into the civilian world."
He also previewed the "likely conclusions" of the Pentagon's nuclear
posture review. The results are not expected before the end of the year.
Gates said it is "clear at least to me" that it will call for "larger
investments in modernizing our nuclear infrastructure, the labs and so
on," which to a degree is already going on. What is new is his saying
that the review "in one or two cases" will "probably [recommend] new
designs" for nuclear weapons "that will be safer and more reliable."
This is a position Gates has backed before. But, as he hinted, if it
becomes a recommendation in the posture review and is approved by
President Obama, it would revive a debate among congressional Democrats
over whether these new designs mean new warheads or just safer versions
of existing ones.
Perhaps Gates's most interesting statements were in his view of the Air
Force of the future, in which "remotely piloted aircraft will get more
numerous and more advanced, with greater range and the ability to fight
as well as survive." He said the director of the Air Force's unmanned
task force has compared today's unmanned airborne vehicles (UAVs) to
"manned aircraft based on the Wright Brothers' Flyer."
Gates said future UAVs teamed with F-35 fifth-generation fighters
"potentially give the United States the ability to disrupt and overwhelm
an adversary using mass and swarming tactics, adding a new dimension to
the American way of war." But he cautioned that this "profound shift in
battlefield technology" would have a wider implication: "Their low cost
and high utility make UAVs very attractive to other nations."
He also warned that potential adversaries, such as China, remain a
threat not because they modernize to match the U.S. fighter-to-fighter
or ship-to-ship, but because they are investing in cyber and
anti-satellite, anti-air and anti-ship weaponry. These could degrade the
current U.S. advantages in projecting power in the Pacific through
forward bases and air carrier strike groups.
Gates's answer was to find a way "to strike from over the horizon." He
committed himself to "an airborne long-range strike force," but warned
against repeating the experience of the B-2. That stealth strategic
bomber took so long to develop that, capable as it was, at $2 billion an
airplane only 21 of the planned fleet of 132 could be built.
Gates frequently adds a bit of previously unknown history to his
answers. For example, last Thursday, while explaining to reporters about
the decision to shelve the plan to establish missile defense facilities
in the Czech Republic and Poland, he slipped in something he had not
disclosed before. He said, in speaking of Moscow's opposition to the
proposal, "that the radar that was going into the Czech Republic looked
deep into Russia and actually could monitor the launches of their ICBMs
as well." Up to that time, it was generally believed that the radar
would be directed only at Iran. No government official had publicly
acknowledged that the radar, which had a 360-degree capability, would be
able to see as far as the Caucasus Mountains inside Russia.
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