Global Security Newswire

A U.S. agreement to halt missile interceptor deployments in Europe would persuade Russia to halt its own work on new strategic weapons, Moscow indicated today (see GSN, Dec. 17).

"If Americans give up plans to deploy the third positioning region and other elements of the strategic missile defense system then certainly we will adequately respond to it," said Col. Gen Nikolai Solovtsov, head of the Russian strategic missile forces. "We will simply not need a number of expensive programs."

Russia might be trying to suggest its willingness to work with the incoming Obama administration, but the statement could also indicate concern about paying for expensive new weapons systems in the midst of the global financial breakdown, according to Reuters.

Russia has been a vehement opponent of Bush administration plans to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic. Officials have complained that the systems would constitute a threat to Russian strategic security, rejecting U.S. arguments that the technology is intended to counter threats from Iran or other rogue nations.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has threatened to deploy short-range Iskander missiles near his nation's borders with Poland and Lithuania if the European missile shield is made reality. Moscow has also said it would develop missiles capable of overcoming missile defenses.

President-elect Barack Obama has not said whether he will pursue his predecessor's program, but has indicated that any missile defenses would be deployed only after being proven to function as required (Oleg Shchedrov, Reuters/Washington Post, Dec. 19).

U.S. Representatives Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) reinforced that stand during a trip to Europe this week, the Air Force Times reported. The two lawmakers told Czech Deputy Prime Minister Aleandr Vondra that Obama "would be guided by the legislative conditions that were imposed by the Congress, particularly the requirement to fully test the long-range interceptors," according to a written statement.

It would take a number of years to certify and test the two-stage interceptors, which have yet to be built. Iran, meanwhile, is likely to need no less than six years to produce missiles capable of hitting targets in Europe or the United States, according to the Arms Control Association (William Matthews, Air Force Times, Dec. 18).