Daily News-Miner:
World leaders are justifiably on edge about North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-Un. From executing senior members of his government and military to rocket launches and nuclear tests, the irrational and paranoid Kim Jong-Un has combined his nuclear goals and ballistic-missile ambitions into a volatile mixture of regional and global instability. In response, Congress has stepped up to lead by recently passing bipartisan legislation to broaden sanctions and punish North Korea for its nuclear program.
Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, is also very focused on developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, as shown by its recent missile tests that were in clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. Unfortunately, unlike North Korea, where we are in the process of tightening sanctions, the United States is in the process of lifting sanctions on Iran. This is a strategic mistake that undermines America’s national security.
For all of these reasons, a robust missile defense for the United States is critical for the security of our nation. And because of Alaska’s strategic location, our state is the cornerstone of America’s missile defense. This is clearly reflected in comments by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter when he said the reason that Alaska is home to our “principle defense batteries” is because of Alaska’s global strategic location.
That’s why I received the bipartisan support of my Senate colleagues in successful efforts to include two critical missile defense priorities in last year’s budget bill — sustaining and improving the existing Ground-based Midcourse Defense system at Fort Greely and funding the Long Range Discriminating Radar (LRDR) at Clear Air Force Station, both in Alaska’s Interior. This effort helped support an already strong request from the Obama Administration for missile defense. And it helped secure that funding in National Defense Authorization and Defense Appropriation bills that totaled $1.4 billion for these critical programs.
I have disagreed with the Obama administration on a number of policy issues. But although more needs to be done to counter external threats, I agree with the Department of Defense’s recent efforts on prioritizing strategic missile defense.
This is clearly critically important for the nation’s defense, and it’s also important for Alaska, particularly in the Interior. In the next few years, the Department of Defense will be making investments on building and constructing projects in Alaska related to missile defense. The president’s fiscal year 2017 budget request includes hundreds of millions of dollars in military construction over the next several years to build the Long Range Discrimination Radar at Alaska’s Clear Air Force Station. This is in addition to the millions of dollars in missile defense upgrades that have already occurred and are still ongoing at Fort Greely.
At a time when Alaska is facing shrinking budgets and job losses, the positive ripple effects for our economy from this investment will be significant and will create substantial job opportunities for Alaskan contractors, their employees and union members.
