Missiles of the north: if the U.S. Department of Defense decides to develop its Missile Defense Program in Alaska, billions of dollars and many jobs are headed this way

Alaska Business Monthly, April, 1999 by John Pohl

The economic potential attached to a massive project of this type is substantial. If the first target date for deployment is met in the year 2000 (based upon the assessed threat to the U.S. and the success of the National Missile Defense development program), up to 20 interceptors and their attendant radar and command/control, could be deployed shortly thereafter. At that point, program costs would run from $9 to $11 billion including development costs.

Greg Thom, a senior legislative assistant for Rep. Don Young, has long followed the National Missile Defense issue for the congressman. Commenting on the program's economic potential for the state, he said, "I'm not sure how those costs would be broken out, but clearly it would make a significant impact - probably at least a quarter of that would be local development. That represents several billion dollars in terms of investment if the decision to deploy in Alaska is made."

This sentiment was also voiced by various industry panelists at a state economic forum held in Juneau in February. An influx of federal projects like National Missile Defense would keep money circulating through the construction, banking, transportation, retail and telecommunications industries, several panelists said.

A CAUTIONARY VIEW

The Federation of American Scientists is a research and advocacy group that comments on science, technology and public policy. FAS was founded as the Federation of Atomic Scientists in 1945 by members of the Manhattan Project who produced the first atomic bomb. It is a privately funded non-profit policy organization. Its board of sponsors includes half of America's living Nobel Laureates.

High on the FAS list of importance are issues dealing with nuclear weapons, arms sales, biological hazards, secrecy, and space policy. FAS seeks to address the implications and perils of the nuclear age, and is the oldest organization dedicated to ending the arms race and avoiding the use of nuclear weapons.

In commenting on a National Missile Defense system deployment in Alaska,John Pike, the FAS spokesperson on the National Missile Defense issue, observed "Free government money is always appealing from an economic standpoint." But he urges that economics not cloud Alaskan's vision of the bigger picture.

First off, deploying the National Missile Defense, Pike says, is like "drawing a real big bull's-eye around the community. This was one of the concerns people had about the original Sentinel anti-missile system we were talking about deploying back in the 1960s. Namely that the most effective ways of negating an anti-missile system is blowing up the base it operates from. The phrase for it back then was that these bases would become megaton magnets, and they would become targets for attack that previously they may not have been."

Secondly, Pike says "The amount spent on this program since President Reagan first unveiled it 15 years ago amounts to around $60 billion dollars. Essentially that money has vanished, with very little to show for it." According to Pike, 13 of the 15 tests of National Missile Defense components have failed.