30 January 2003
Hoon under fire over star wars deal
Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian

The Commons defence committee said it "deplored" the way in which the Ministry of Defence handled the request to upgrade Fylingdales on the North York Moors. "It has shown no respect for either the views of those affected locally by the decision or for the arguments of those opposed to the upgrade in principle," it said.

It added: "Despite the secretary of state's unequivocal statement that he wanted the decision to be informed by public and parliamentary discussion, he has acted in a way that has effectively curtailed such discussions."

Mr Hoon told the Commons on January 15 that he had come to the "preliminary conclusion" that he should agree to the US request. That was barely a month after the MoD issued a "public discussion" paper and promised a proper debate on the issue.

Yesterday the defence committee disclosed that the MoD wants to give Washington its formal agreement by tomorrow. It said Mr Hoon had offered "no good reason" for his refusal to allow a proper public debate and urged him to publish more information, covering the timescale for the upgrade, and for its incorporation into the US missile defence system, and how the system would be able to track missiles.

In particular, it said the MoD should address the issue of radiation emissions and other local concerns about possible health hazards. "The MoD has not done as much as it could to present the full facts and explain carefully how such misgivings are misplaced," it said.

The MPs say the request did not simply involve a "technical upgrade" of Fylingdales computers. It involved a change to the purposes to which information collected by the radar would be put - not just to identify and track missiles, but to "support the capability of the interceptor missiles".

Upgrading Fylingdales requires an amendment to the US-British agreement covering American use of the radar base, the MPs said. A separate agreement would also be required if the US wanted to use its satellite space-based infra-red missile tracking system at Menwith Hill, in North Yorkshire, for the missile defence project.

The MPs said it was in Britain's interests to respond positively to the US request if Britain wanted to keep open the option of fully participating in a missile defence system in the future.