U.S. Needs Full Protection Against North Korea

WASHINGTON, March 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Riki Ellison, Chairman of the
Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org,
informed the membership of MDAA that a letter has been sent to Secretary of
Defense Robert M. Gates urging him to make sure all of our missile defense
assets are in place to protect Alaska, Hawaii and regions of the United States
prior to the North Korea "Space Launch" and missile test scheduled for later
this week. The letter to Secretary Gates follows:

"Dear Secretary Gates,

As Chairman of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance representing 10,000
members nationwide with a 7 year consistent record of promoting the
development and deployment of a robust missile defense capability for the
United States, I am compelled to write to you regarding my concern for
America's actions in the face of the growing North Korean missile threat.
While I recognize the right of every sovereign nation to pursue a peaceful
space program, I believe you would agree that the upcoming North Korean "space
launch" could very well have military implications for the future and in the
near term, threaten Alaska, Hawaii or other regions of the United States.
Therefore, I urge that you to consider activating all available missile
defense assets to the Pacific to protect against an errant space launch
attempt or a ballistic missile launch that threatens the United Stares or our
allies. By way of reference, I understand that the assets deployed for the
successful intercept of a long range ballistic missile target this past
December 5, 2008 can put the United States in the most effective posture to
counter any North Korean action in the next few weeks.

On a personal level and by the full support of my membership, I encourage you
to place all of our Missile Defense assets in the Pacific region in the best
position to counter the ambiguity that North Korea has historically
demonstrated."

Ellison further elaborated on this letter in his statement is as follows:

One of the United States most valuable assets and the best discriminating and
tracking sensor for ballistic missile defense, the Sea Based X Band Radar
(SBX) has not been deployed and has been docked for the past several months at
Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The SBX was the main sensor in the recent
successful long range ballistic missile intercept on December 5, 2008
providing the primary targeting information for the Ground Based Missile
Interceptor (GBI) out of Vandenberg Air Force Base, Ca. that successfully
intercepted a long range ballistic missile from Kodiak Island, Alaska.

The December 5th, 2008 test simulated a North Korean long range missile threat
using the current U.S. missile defense deployed assets designed including for
a long range ballistic missile intercept. The SBX was also successfully
deployed and used with the Aegis Sea Based Missile Defense System for the
February 21, 2008 successful NRO satellite shoot down which had a one in 45
chance of harming human life if not intercepted. The SBX is a self propelled
X-band radar and has a sea speed of up to 10 knots per hour.

If deployed the SBX can begin to emit its sensor 50 or so miles from Hawaii
and can become effective by providing sensoring information to the deployed
long range missile defense system in place today. The SBX cost $950 million
dollars to build and costs additional tens of millions of dollars to maintain
and operate annually.

The azimuth or launch direction for an ideal space orbital launch from North
Korea using optimal rotation of the earth is in the mid-80s which over flies
the country of Japan and heads east towards the Pacific Ocean. The azimuth for
a long range ballistic missile from North Korea to Hawaii is in the similar
80s degree range. North Korea has declared two "clear zones" on either side
of Japan for the first and second rocket stages accounting for the debris
falling from their rocket or missile launch. The North Korea trajectory
following that flight path would terminate close to Hawaii if the rocket
failed to achieve orbit or was a long range ballistic missile launch.

The SBX is the most powerful and most capable sensor to discriminate the
debris, payload and a possible reentry vehicle in detail from a North Korean
long range missile or rocket launch traveling at extreme high speeds across
the Pacific Ocean.

Riki Ellison is available for on-the-record interviews. Call Mike Terrill at
602 885-1955 to arrange.

SOURCE MDAA

Mike Terrill of MDAA, +1-602-885-1955