Shelby, speaking at the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County’s Annual Washington Update Breakfast, discussed the importance of aerospace, missile defense and other programs led by Redstone Arsenal in light of emerging threats of North Korea and Iran.

The event, presented by The Boeing Company, was sold out about 1,300 people in attendance.

“What we do in D.C., particularly in the areas of aerospace/defense and intelligence, affects this region,” Shelby said.

Shelby said that in working with senators from other states, the way to win support for the types of projects being worked at Redstone is to focus on how the project will “impact the nation” as opposed to how many jobs it will create in the state.

“We could all do better by saying ‘we’ instead of ‘I’,” he said.

He alluded to the recent test of a long-range missile by North Korea and the burgeoning nuclear ambitions of Iran.

“North Korea is a rogue state. Everyone knows that. When they test a missile, it is a reminder to me that we better not go backward on missile defense,” Shelby said.

An area that Shelby is particularly fond of is the improvised explosives education activities at Redstone. Shelby said that the Department of Justice needs a stronger presence on Redstone to effectively combat terrorism domestically.

“If people can build IEDs (improvised explosive devises) in places like Iraq and Afghanistan with nothing, think of what they could do here in America,” he said.

Another issue involving defense that Shelby addressed was the recently announced budget cuts for defense announced by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Shelby said that Gates and President Barack Obama can make suggestions, but Congress will have the final say about how much money agencies get. He said that any talk of scaling back weapons would likely generate debate.

“With all of the programs that we have here, I believe that we can fight the battle to keep these projects running,” he said.