Missile site under construction in Alaska

According to The New York Times, workers are now laying the foundation for a missile defense site at Fort Greely, around 140 kilometres south of Fairbanks, Alaska.

This site will house a command centre and five silos for launching rockets that could shoot down enemy missles high above the earth.

The U.S. department of defense says Fort Greely would initially be used for anti-missile testing, but might be declared a working National Missile Defense site by 2004.

In the aftermath of the terrorists’ attacks on Sept. 11, the U.S. Senate has withdrawn a move to cut the government’s budget for a NMD system and to place restrictions on the development of the NMD.

The NMD would set up a defensive screen to track and destroy incoming missiles headed to U.S. airspace. Its proponents want to set up radar installations in the United Kingdom and Greenland that would, with satellites, provide an early warning system.