THE TIMES: The United States and Europe need to be protected by 2020 from a potential attack from Iran that could involve a “scores or even hundreds of missiles”, the US Defence Secretary warned yesterday.
Robert Gates painted the alarming scenario as he defended a US plan to deploy a new, advanced shipborne anti-missile system called SM3 Block 2B, which will have the range of an intercontinental ballistic missile, within ten years.
Appearing before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Mr Gates underlined the importance of deploying the anti-missile weapon to meet the potential Iranian threat, “especially if we fail to stop them getting nuclear weapons”.
“If Iran launched missiles on Europe, it wouldn’t be a handful but a salvo, maybe scores or even hundreds of missiles, so the SM3 2B would give us the ability to defend [against such an attack],” Mr Gates said. Read on and comment >>> Michael Evans, Pentagon Correspondent | Thursday, June 17, 2010
