http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1764976&C=europe

Posted 05/10/06 11:28
Missile Threat to Europe Warrants Shield: NATO Official

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BRUSSELS, Belgium


Europe faces an increasing threat from attacks with long-range missiles and could help avert the danger by building a missile defense network, a senior NATO official said on May 10.
”There is a growing threat of long-range missile attack on NATO territory and it is timely to examine ways and means of addressing that threat,” said Marshall Billingslea, head of NATO’s Conference of National Armaments Directors.
He refused to comment on what countries posed such a threat.
The head of Israel’s military intelligence said late last month that Iran, which has taken an increasingly hard-line over its nuclear program, had purchased North Korean long-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting Europe.
On April 29, Pakistan successfully test fired a nuclear-capable missile with a range of at least 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), the military said.
Billingslea said a 10,000-page feasibility study handed to NATO ambassadors on May 10 had found that a missile shield of ground and satellite detectors coupled with “a few land interceptors” could be built at relatively low cost.
Billingslea also refused to estimate how much the network might cost.
He said the study, commissioned by NATO leaders in 2002, had come up with several “threat scenarios” and that the price would depend on what, if any missile response, was adopted by the military alliance’s 26 member nations.
When asked how long it would take to build the cheapest option, Billingslea said: “Sooner rather than later.”