U.S. Preparing for Iranian Missile Threat

This comes to us from Senior Editor Anna Mulrine, who covers the Pentagon:

Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told reporters Thursday that the agency is modifying radars in the United Kingdom and Greenland to better protect the United States from missile strikes.

"We have allies and friends that aren't protected against the threat we see from Iran," he said. "The threat is getting more and more real--and it's getting more urgent," he added, citing development and testing programs in Iran that he says have accelerated.

"A lot of people think that by 2015" Iran will have the ability to deploy long-range missiles, he added. "This idea of the proliferation of missiles is something we have to be very concerned about. ... Why are these countries investing so heavily in these missiles?" He said that he can understand the concern coming from Russia, but he noted that the trajectory of Iranian missiles "overflies Russian territory." He added that he has invited Russia to inspect U.S. missile sites in Alaska.

"It's not Russians we're worried about--it's Iranians," he said.

Obering added that Missile Defense has taken a hit in the president's budget for the upcoming year. Of the $8.9 billion appropriated to the agency by Congress, Obering said it will spend some $7.1 billion to focus on near-term threats, with the remaining $1.8 billion used to focus on the longer term.

Etc.: Iran-Washington Tensions Escalate (Video), on USNews.com