Updated at 7:20 a.m. ET: INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed an order Friday to send two Patriot missile batteries to Turkey to protect it from rounds crossing the border from Syria.

The order includes 400 American personnel to operate the batteries.

"We are deploying two patriot batteries here to Turkey along with the troops that are necessary to man those batteries, so that we can help Turkey have the kind of missile defense it may very well need in dealing with threats that come out of Syria," Panetta told the troops at Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.

Turkey, a NATO member, has repeatedly scrambled jets along the countries' 560-mile joint frontier and responded in kind when shells from the 20-month-old Syrian conflict came down inside its borders, fanning fears that the civil war could spread to destabilize the region.

Abir Sultan / EPA, file

A Patriot anti-missile battery is shown during joint U.S.-Israeli military exercises near Jerusalem in October. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced Friday that the United States had agreed to send two Patriot batteries to NATO ally Turkey to protect from shells crossing over from fighting in neighboring Syria.

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The widely expected decision follows similar steps by Germany and the Netherlands, which are also sending Patriot batteries.

The three countries are the only NATO countries with the most modern type of Patriots and each had to approve separately its own commitment.

US: Concerns about chemical weapons
In his most explicit comment so far on intelligence suggesting Syria was considering the use of chemical weapons, Panetta told the troops that U.S. intelligence suggested "they had in fact moved to begin to arm weapons that would involve ... the use of chemical and biological material."

He said that was why President Barack Obama had publicly warned Syria not to use chemical weapons.

Panetta spokesman George Little declined to say where the U.S. Patriot batteries would be located and said the systems would be deployed to Turkey for an unspecified length of time.

He acknowledged that the move was a symbolic show of force.

"The purpose of this deployment is to signal very strongly that the United States, working closely with our NATO allies, is going to support the defense of Turkey, especially with potential threats emanating from Syria," Little told reporters.

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"We expect them to be deployed in the coming weeks," he added.

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NATO approved Turkey's request for air defense batteries on Dec. 4, in a move meant to calm Ankara's fears of an attack, possibly with chemical weapons, from Syria.

The Patriot system is designed to intercept aircraft or missiles. NATO says the measure is purely defensive, but Russia, Syria and Iran have criticized the decision, saying it increases regional instability.

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U.S. troops at the base the Turkish border with Syria asked Panetta whether he believed Assad's government would respond negatively to the new Patriot systems.

"We have to act to do what we have to do to make sure that we defend ourselves and that Turkey can defend itself against that," Panetta said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a call to arms against cyber attacks on U.S. targets and said the Pentagon must be prepared to launch preemptive attacks in cyberspace against potential attackers. He warned that a cyber attack by a nation state or terrorists on the U.S. could be America's "cyber Pearl Harbor" and "be just as destructive as the terrorist attack of 9/11."

In a speech before business executives in New York, Panetta revealed that cyber intruders have already gained access to some of America's critical control systems that run chemical, electric and water systems with the intent to "cause panic, destruction and loss of life."

With a current annual budget of $3 billion for cybersecurity, Panetta urged that more needs to be done to create an army of "skilled cyber warriors" to confront the immediate and growing threat. The Defense Department is already hammering out new "rules of engagement" for a potential cyber war.

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Panetta stressed that defending against potentially disastrous cyber attack on America will take a total government and business-wide effort. 

Panetta said that before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, warning signs went largely ignored.

"We cannot let that happen again," Panetta warned. "This is a pre-9/11 moment. The attackers are plotting."

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Larry Downing / AFP - Getty Images

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, center, disembarks from his aircraft after arriving at US Yokota air base in Japan on Sunday.

TOKYO -- U.S. and Japanese officials have agreed to put a second defense system in Japan aimed at protecting the country from the threat of a missile attack from North Korea, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.

The exact location of the radar installation has not yet been determined. It will be in the south of the country, U.S. officials said, but not in Okinawa.

Officials stressed that the system would be aimed at protecting the region against the threat from North Korea and is not directed at China.

The U.S. already has similar early warning radar systems on ships in the Asia-Pacific.

This second Japan-based system will allow the U.S. vessels to spread out and cover other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.

Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China seas

Panetta said the new installation would also be effective in protecting the U.S. homeland from a North Korea threat. He spoke during a press conference in Tokyo with the Japanese defense minister, Satoshi Morimoto.

Morimoto said it would not be appropriate at this time to specify a location for the new radar, and said a date for its deployment has not yet been set.

While officials insisted the radar system would not be aimed at China, the decision was sure to raise the ire of Beijing.

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The radar will "enhance our ability to defend Japan," Panetta said, adding that he would talk to Chinese leaders about the system to assure them that this about protecting the U.S. and the region from North Korea's missile threat.

"We have made these concerns clear to the Chinese," he said. "For that reason ... we believe it is very important to move ahead" with the radar system.

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North Korea has long been trying to build a nuclear arsenal, has also been working on a ballistic missile which would be able to reach the U.S. mainland. However, its long-range rocket tests have to date all failed.

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David Guttenfelder / AP

In this March 9, 2011 photo, a girl plays the piano inside the Changgwang Elementary School in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Launch slideshow

Japan has worked closely with the U.S. for several years on missile defense, and has both land- and sea-based missile launchers.

North Korea's ballistic missiles are considered a threat to security in the Asia-Pacific region because of the risk of conflict erupting on the divided and heavily militarized Korean peninsula, and because of the secretive North's nuclear weapons program.

The long-range rockets it is developing have been test-fired over Japan and could potentially reach the U.S.

The North conducted its latest long-range rocket launch in April, defying a U.N. ban. Pyongyang said the launch was intended to send an observation satellite into space but it drew international condemnation as the rocket technology is similar to that used for ballistic missiles.

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The launch was a failure and the rocket disintegrated shortly after takeoff.

Panetta is on his third trip to Asia in 11 months, reflecting the Pentagon's ongoing shift to put more military focus on the Asia-Pacific.

Territorial disputes
The defense chief is urging countries involved in territorial disputes in the region to find a way to peacefully resolve those problems before they spark provocations and violence.

Panetta's visit to Japan also included discussions with Morimoto about the deployment of V-22 Ospreys to the southwestern island of Okinawa. Tens of thousands of people have protested the hybrid aircraft's planned use, saying they are unsafe.

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The U.S. had hoped to have the aircraft in place as early as next month, but Morimoto said no specific date has been set on that matter, either.

The Pentagon plans to deploy 12 of the aircraft, which take off and land like a helicopter, but fly like a plane. U.S. officials have assured Japanese leaders the Ospreys are safe.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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JERUSALEM - Israel told visiting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday that time was running out for a peaceful settlement to the nuclear dispute with Iran because sanctions and tough talk over possible military action were failing to sway Tehran.

Speculation is rampant over whether Israel will make a military strike against Iran to halt a nuclear program that the West suspects is aimed at building an atomic bomb but which Tehran says is entirely peaceful.

Panetta assured Israel that the United States would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear bomb. Using a tough tone, he suggested military action was possible after all other options were exhausted.

"This is not about containment. This is about making very clear that they are never to be able to get an atomic weapon," Panetta said in Jerusalem.

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"If they make the decision to proceed with a nuclear weapon...we have options that we are prepared to implement to ensure that that does not happen," said Panetta, whose visit to the close U.S. ally included a tour of an anti-rocket battery known as "Iron Dome."

Time 'is running out'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that such declarations were of little comfort and said "neither sanctions nor diplomacy have had any impact on Iran's nuclear weapons program."

"You said yourself a few months ago when all else fails America will act. Yet these declarations also have not convinced the Iranians to stop their program," Netanyahu said, standing next to Panetta at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem.  

"Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear program. This must change and it must change quickly because time to resolve this issue peacefully is running out," Netanyahu added.

Any conflict could easily draw in the United States, where debate over Israel and Iran figures in campaigning for the presidential election in November. Republican candidate Mitt Romney visited Israel this week.

The Jewish state -- which declines to confirm its own suspected nuclear arsenal -- says little time remains before Iran achieves a "zone of immunity" in which Israeli bombs would be unable to penetrate deeply buried uranium enrichment facilities.

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The United States has more potent weapons that would allow more time for the sanctions push to work.

Defenses bolstered
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, speaking at a news conference with Panetta, said the chances that sanctions would ultimately force Tehran's hand were extremely low.

"We have clearly something to lose by this stretched time (during) which sanctions and diplomacy takes place because the Iranians are moving forward, not just in enrichment," Barak said, possibly referring to missile development.

Panetta's trip to Israel showcased the strong security ties between the two countries. Barak said those relations had never been better despite Israel's misgivings over the Iran strategy pursued by Washington and other world powers.

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Romney, on a visit to Israel that ended on Monday, said "any and all measures" must be used to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Boosting Israel defenses
Even as it strengthens sanctions, Washington is bolstering Israeli defenses.

Obama last week announced he was releasing $70 million in approved funding for Iron Dome, a protection against Palestinian rockets that is backed by the powerful U.S. pro-Israel lobby. On Tuesday, he laid out new U.S. sanctions against foreign banks that help Iran sell its oil.

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Obama received 78 percent of the Jewish vote in the 2008 election but a nationwide Gallup poll in June showed him down to 64 percent backing versus Romney's 29 percent.

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The political jousting on the U.S. campaign trail is mirrored in Israel, whose media have reported misgivings among the military top brass about going it alone against Iran. Speculation is rife that Netanyahu wants to take action ahead of a possible Obama reelection in November.

"The struggle behind the scenes over attacking Iran is reaching a boiling point," the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz wrote in a front-page analysis.

NBC News staff and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo / Department of Defense via EPA

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (right) exchanges greetings with Saudi Defense Minister Crown Prince Salman bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud.

Nearly one year ago, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta predicted the strategic defeat of al-Qaida was within reach if the United States could kill or capture up to 20 leaders of the core group and its affiliates.

In an interview with Reuters, Panetta disclosed that only a "small handful" of the individuals on that original list remained on the battlefield and that Saudi Arabia -- the birthplace of late al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden -- was reporting a drop-off in recruitment.

"We've not only impacted on their leadership, we've impacted on their capability to provide any kind of command and control in terms of operations," Panetta said Thursday.

The U.S. defense chief visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and, after paying U.S. condolences over the death of the late crown prince, spoke about al-Qaida with one of his sons, Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who has run the kingdom's operations against the terror network as a deputy interior minister.

"I asked him the question, ‘As a result of the bin Laden raid, as a result of what we've done to their leadership, where are we with al-Qaida?’" Panetta recounted, adding that al-Qaida and bin Laden "came out of Saudi Arabia."

"Bin Nayef said, ‘For the first time, what I'm seeing is that young people are no longer attracted to al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia,'" he said.

Panetta did not single out which leaders from his target list last year remained, but current al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri is one he named last year. He is still believed to be living in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

SITE via AP

Al-Qaida's leader Ayman al-Zawahri in a still image from a web posting by al-Qaida's media arm, as-Sahab, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012.

Asked how many targets remained, Panetta said, "It's a small handful and it's growing smaller all the time."

Panetta to Pakistan: 'Time to move on'
On other topics, Panetta in the interview:

• Defended the U.S. decision not to arm opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but said he was concerned that shoulder-fired missiles stolen from Libya last year could make their way to Syria. He said he had seen no direct intelligence yet suggesting they had.
• All but ruled out an apology over an air strike last year that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, as Islamabad has demanded, saying it was "time to move on" in the troubled U.S.-Pakistan relationship.
• Said Iraq had given assurances to the United States that it would not release a suspected Hezbollah operative accused of killing American troops, whom the United States turned over to Iraqi custody last December just before the last U.S. troops exited the country.

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After addressing questions about the future of al-Qaida's top leadership, Panetta shifted his focus to the group's ability to survive as a movement at all.

"We'll keep the pressure on at the top and we'll keep going after their leadership," Panetta said.

"But the real issue that will determine the end of al-Qaida is when they find it difficult to recruit any new people,” he added.

The killing of bin Laden in a covert U.S. raid in Pakistan last year has been followed by a series of unmanned aerial attacks that have crushed al-Qaida's network along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

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The latest high-profile al-Qaida leader killed in the U.S. campaign was Abu Yahya al-Libi, the group's second-in-command, who broke out of a high-security U.S. prison in neighboring Afghanistan in 2005 and was a key strategist.

Beyond the Afghan-Pakistan region, another key figure killed last year was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American imam who became a senior leader of al-Qaida's Yemen-based affiliate.

While successful tactically, the drone strikes have further poisoned U.S.-Pakistan relations and, critics say, raise questions about international law and could boost militant recruiting.

Only about eight hard-core al-Qaida leaders are still believed to be based in the lawless borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan, compared with dozens a few years ago.

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Jim Watson / Reuters

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, left, speaks with Afghanistan Defense Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak during a joint news conference Thursday at the Ministry of Defense in Kabul.

KABUL -- The United States is reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistan because it provides safe havens to insurgents from neighboring Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday.

Speaking in the Afghan capital of Kabul, Panetta used some of the strongest language by a senior U.S. official to describe the strained ties between Washington and Islamabad.

"It is difficult to achieve peace in Afghanistan as long as there is safe haven for terrorists in Pakistan," said Panetta, who was holding talks with military leaders amid rising violence in the war against the Taliban. "It is very important for Pakistan to take steps. It is an increasing concern, the issue of safe haven, and we are reaching the limits of our patience."

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States said Panetta's comments would make it harder for the two countries to narrow their differences.

"It adds an unhelpful twist to the process and leaves little oxygen for those of us seeking to break a stalemate," Pakistan's envoy, Sherry Rehman, said in a statement.

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday implicitly defended Washington's use of drone strikes against suspected militants, just days after one of them killed Abu Yahya al-Libi, al-Qaida's second-ranking leader, in northwest Pakistan.

"We will always maintain our right to use force against groups such as al-Qaida that have attacked us and still threaten us with imminent attack," Clinton said in Istanbul at a meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum, a U.S.-and Turkish-chaired group.

A senior U.S. official acknowledged Thursday that the recent increase in drone strikes on insurgents in Pakistan — targeting mostly al-Qaida but other militants as well — is partly a result of frustration with Islamabad. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations.

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Panetta urged Pakistan to go after the Haqqani militant network, one of the United States' most feared enemies in Afghanistan, and said Washington would exert diplomatic pressure and take any other steps needed to protect its forces.

"It is an increasing concern that safe havens exist and those like the Haqqanis make use of that to attack our forces," he said.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon will seek to provide Israel with an additional $70 million in the coming months for its short-range rocket shield, known as the "Iron Dome," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said after a meeting with his Israeli counterpart on Thursday.

So far, the United States has provided $205 million to support the Iron Dome, manufactured by Israel's state-owned Raphael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. The system uses small radar-guided missiles to blow up in midair Katyusha-style rockets with ranges of 3 miles to 45 miles, as well as mortar bombs.

But top Republicans have criticized President Barack Obama for what they described as inadequate funding of U.S.-Israeli missile defense cooperation in his 2013 budget request released in February amid deficit-reduction requirements.

Legislation moving through the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives would give Israel additional $680 million for the Iron Dome system through 2015, and some House lawmakers are seeking a deal with Israel to share production of the Iron Dome system with U.S. weapons manufacturers.

Obama's fiscal 2013 budget request calls for $3.1 billion in security assistance to Israel, part of a 10-year, $30 billion U.S. commitment, none of which was scheduled to fund Iron Dome.

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On Thursday, Panetta said the Pentagon would seek additional funding for the Iron Dome program over the next three years "based on an annual assessment of Israeli security requirements."

"My goal is to ensure Israel has the funding it needs each year to produce these batteries that can protect its citizens," Panetta said.

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He said the $70 million would be provided this fiscal year, which ends in September.

"This is assistance that, provided Congress concurs, we can move quickly, to ensure no shortage in this important system," Panetta said in a statement after meeting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Pentagon.

'Unbreakable bonds'
The Jerusalem Post quoted Barak as saying that Israeli-U.S. defense ties had never been as strong as they were today under the Obama administration.

"The U.S. decision to support further enhancing Israel's security is an important demonstration of the unbreakable bonds between the United States and Israel," Barak added. 

The pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC welcomed Panetta's decision, saying it would help Israel better protect its citizens against some 60,000 missiles and rockets amassed at its borders by Hamas and Hezbollah Islamist militants.

As of April, Israel had deployed three operating units of the system, which helped thwart Palestinian rocket salvos during a flare-up in fighting around the Gaza Strip in March. It has spoken of needing a total of 13 or 14 units to protect various fronts.

The system intercepted more than 80 percent of the targets it engaged in March when nearly 300 rockets and mortars were fired at southern Israel, saving many lives, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman said on March 27.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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