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The Hamilton Spectator (Canada) Wednesday May 28th 2003
[Posted May 30.]
Posted by: John Five
The Hamilton Spectator (Canada) Wednesday May 28th 2003
Section C page 4
"Missile defence base under way"
Mothballed Alaskan site is reborn
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Bradley Graham The Washington Post FORT GREELY, ALASKA
On a barran Alaskan field shorn of the spruces and poplars that once crowded it, construction crews now churn up tons of dirt, carving 25-metre-deep holes for missile silos and erecting about a dozen state-of-the-art military command and support facilities.
It is here that the Bush administration plans to install a vanguard force of rocket propelled interceptors for defending the United States against a ballistic missile attack. Racing against a deadline 16 months away, the $500 million construction effort has many moving parts that must mesh tightly for the schedule to hold.
During a recent site visit, giant cranes could be seen starting to lower long steel cylinders into silo holes to contain missile interceptors that are still in development. Workers climbed in and out of deep trenches that cut across the missile field, laying three miles of concrete tunnels to insulate water pipes against the cold.
Other crews poured concrete panels for encasing buildings. The buildings are further lined with plates of steel - all part of a reinforced architecture intended to protect against enemy attack, earthquakes and electromagnetic waves from high-altitude nuclear blasts.
All in all, construction site managers have identified about 13,000 activities that need to be completed for the antimissile system to be up and running by Sept. 30, 2004, the date set by President Bush. In the nearby town of Delta Junction, population 840, about 400 kilometers due west of Dawson City, Yukon, residents regard the construction project with a mixture of awe and trepidation. The
missile field itself is shielded from public view, located well off the two-lane road that runs to town about eight kilometers away.
But with several hundred construction workers camped in the area and trucks rambling past the farms, ranches and forests of the Alaskan interior, the project is difficult to ignore.
Property values around Delta Junction have soared, and the Pentagon has invested $18 million in several town projects, including a new landfill, school, recreation centre and library addition. Local authorities e
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xpect more federal money in the coming year.
The economic boost has raised hopes in an area whose fortunes have long been tied to the U.S. military. The missile complex is rising on the grounds of an old military base, established during the Second World War as part of the Alaska Highwa
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y project. Fort Greely eventually became a cold-weather test site for the Army, but in 1995 it was deemed dispensable and ordered shut as part of a series of Pentagon base closings.
The decision triggered an economic slump in Delta Junction and set off a bitter town debate over whether to turn the base into a prison. Now, that's history.
"Many people have rallied behind the idea of missile defence," said Pete Hallgren, a former state Republican Party chairman who moved here from Sitka in southern Alaska several years ago anticipating the arrival of missile defence and became the town's administrator. "This community grew up around the military, so the people are used to it."
Not everyone is enamored of the anti-missile project though. Some worry that the recent surge of construction will lead to another boom-bust cycle. Also unnerving for some is the idea of having powerful rockets stationed so close.
"It was different having the old base here than having an antimissile site," said Wanda Stewart, owner of Granite View sports and gifts shop. "The old base didn't kill."
The only open opposition has come in the form of a couple of small demonstrations organized by an anti-nuclear group called No Nukes North, headquartered in Fairbanks about 90 miles to the north.
For Bush, who has made development of missile defences a top priority, establishment of a working antimissile system here would mark a milestone.
Only once before has the United States built such a defence. But that system, set up in North Dakota in 1975, lasted only several months before Congress terminated
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it amid concerns about cost and effectiveness.
In the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan rekindled the argument about constructing a national antimissile system.
The idea has received added impetus under Bush as a necessary weapon for thwarting terrorist groups and such nations as North Korea and Iran, both of which have been trying to develop long-range missiles.
Critics see politics as the driving force behind Bush's determination.
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15/2/02
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