BATTLE CREEK (WKZO-AM) — The Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce has notified its members that there has been some movement in the effort to locate a missile base east of the Mississippi — a base they would like to see at Fort Custer.
One of four sites under consideration for the multi-billion dollar ballistic missile defense system has been taken off the list. A base in Maine is just too remote and environmentally sensitive for the project.
That leaves the site on the border of Kalamazoo and Calhoun Counties, Fort Drum in New York and Camp Ravenna in Ohio.
The base would house weapons that could knock down missiles fired at the United States by Iran and North Korea. The project itself may depend on just how viable a threat those countries become, and whether other technology is invented that could do a better job first.
$30 million has been added to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2016 that will be put toward the planning and design of an east coast missile defense site, which could speed up its deployment.
– John McNeill
