Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused Washington on Thursday of imposing its plans to deploy a missile defence shield on European countries, a day after he threatened to retaliate if the United States pressed ahead with the project.

On Wednesday Medvedev said he would arm Russia with missiles capable of countering the U.S. shield, deploy additional weapons in the west and south and set up an early-warning radar system in its Baltic enclave to counteract the U.S. system, which is not expected to be fully in place until 2020.

“The construction of the European missile defence shield has been largely imposed (on Europe) by the United States,” he told regional reporters at a briefing in the northern town of Petrozavodsk, some 920 km (570 miles) north of Moscow.

He quoted unnamed European leaders who, he said, had complained to him that they had a minor role in the project.

“My partners…have hinted to me from time to time: “It is the Americans who decided that, they are promoting it, and our role as NATO member states is to provide territory,” he said.

Medvedev’s attempt to divide Washington and its NATO partners could irk European countries, especially Poland and Romania, former Soviet bloc states that had agreed, along with Spain, to house parts of the missile shield.

Russia’s ex-satellites are traditionally sensitive to Moscow belittling their authority.

Russia maintains that the U.S. missile defence system aims to weaken its nuclear deterrent and wants legally binding guarantees that the system will not be directed against it. Washington says the shield will be deployed against countries like Iran and is not a threat to Russia.

Medvedev, who together with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama called for a ‘reset’ in relations less than three years ago to improve Russia’s ties with the West, has recently tended to echo Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s anti-western rhetoric.

His latest statements are widely seen as a way to please the domestic audience ahead of Dec. 4 parliamentary polls and the March 2012 presidential vote, which are expected to steer Putin back to the Kremlin and secure Medvedev the post of prime minister by agreement between the two men.  [Reuters]

Russian space forces commander Lt. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko on Tuesday said his nation and Ukraine are in discussions on a potential collaborative program to field ballistic missile defense technology, RIA Novosti reported (see GSN, Feb. 28).

“We are currently in talks with the Ukrainian side on jointly resolving missile defense objectives,” the military commander said without providing any other specifics.

However, Moscow has no interest in renewing its usage of Ukraine’s “obsolete” radars at Sevastopol and Mukacheve, he said (RIA Novosti, Oct. 4).

In February, former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko said the country was interested in participating in NATO’s planned missile defense architecture even though Ukraine is not a member of the alliance. Ohryzko said the radar stations at Mukacheve and Sevastopol could be his government’s contribution to the missile shield, according to previous reports.

“These radar stations were built in the Soviet period. They cannot be used against Russia because they look the other way,” ITAR-Tass reported quoted Ostapenko as saying.

“These are totally obsolete radar stations, and it would be senseless to restore them,” the general said (ITAR-Tass, Oct. 4).

Moscow has voiced repeated worries that NATO’s missile shield would be secretly aimed at undermining Russian strategic nuclear forces.  [Global Security News]

You can read more at the link.

Spain agreed Wednesday to bolster NATO’s planned missile defence system by hosting four US naval ships equipped with interceptors designed to knock out incoming missiles.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero visited NATO headquarters to announce the deal alongside US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

“Spain is a (NATO) member committed to the collective defence of Europe,” Zapatero told a news conference, adding that the deal will “also guarantee the defence of our territory and Spanish people”.

The Aegis-equipped ships will be deployed at the US naval base in Rota in southern Spain by 2013, Zapatero said.

Panetta said the Rota arrangement was a “critical step” in deploying the shield after a key agreement last month with Turkey to host a sophisticated US radar, and deals with Romania and Poland to host land-based SM-3 interceptors.  [Space Daily]

You can read more at the link.

Europe will never match the U.S.’s passion for missile defense; but step-by-step, Washington’s NATO partners are moving to build up capacities that could augment and expand the shield the Pentagon is creating.

Progress will be slow and incremental, though, and—in terms of budget expenditure—will remain a mere fraction of what the U.S. commits to the mission area.

Nevertheless, there is clear momentum in Europe to do more, even if the main motivator is industrial base considerations: France wants to ensure that its missile sector does not lose out to U.S. rivals in providing interceptors to European and other forces, and the Netherlands wants to sustain advanced naval radar capacities.

In the NATO context, budgets are less important than symbolic steps, and this is underscored by the members’ recent move to award a €2.5 million ($3.4 million) contract to an industry team led by Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), which will define the first elements of a plan that will enlarge the theater missile defense system to cover NATO territory and populations in Europe. Last year, NATO decided that it wanted to protect territory instead of just deployed forces. It was a long political battle, so this study effort—no matter how paltry the funding—has significant implications for the alliance’s future.

Work under the year-long effort is to be performed at the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency in The Hague, and “the results will then be taken forward for implementation in the NATO command-and-control network to broaden the capabilities of the NATO commander well beyond those demonstrated recently in missile defense testing between the U.S. and NATO elements last month,” the organization said in announcing the contract.

Alessandro Pera, manager for the Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense (ALTBMD) program—the command, control and communications backbone for the alliance’s missile shield—says that under the new contract award, “we will work as a team with our industry and national partners, in close consultation with both the NATO military and relevant NATO committees, to ensure we get the job done.”

The NATO contract follows a November 2010 decision at the Lisbon summit to provide the alliance with an additional layer of capability to protect Europe.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands, which has had a longtime interest in a missile shield, is pressing ahead to build up its own capacities. The Dutch defense ministry plans to expand the capabilities of the Thales Smart-L radar on Dutch frigates to take on BMD roles. The program’s value is estimated at €100-250 million, including logistics support and spares.

Other European navies using the sensor may follow the Dutch lead.

Dutch Defense Minister Hans Hillen notes that the Smart-L effort would help address the BMD sensor shortage within the NATO alliance. Citing NATO’s decision last year to take a more expansive approach to BMD, Hillen says Smart-L could give the ALTBMD command-and-control backbone the required long-range target-detection information. The sensor also could provide accurate launch-point detection analysis to help identify where a threat originates.  [Aviation Week]

You can read more at the link to include how Raytheon is promoting its SM-3 missile in an effort to sell it to European allies.

The U.S. is moving ahead quickly with a controversial new radar system in Turkey designed to counter a potential missile threat from Iran, a senior U.S. military official said on Wednesday (see GSN, Sept. 14).

Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, the top Army officer in Europe, told reporters that a team of soldiers was currently in Turkey’s Kürecik district to survey the proposed location of the radar array. Hertling said the U.S hoped to have the radar system installed and operational by the end of the year, though he hinted that date could slide into 2012.

The Turkish system will be paired with a parallel radar array in Poland as part of the Obama administration’s escalating effort to protect European allies — as well as the U.S. military personnel stationed on the continent – from Iranian missile strikes. Iran has in recent months successfully tested next-generation missiles capable of hitting targets throughout Europe.

Hertling downplayed Turkish opposition to the new installation, arguing that popular protests there failed to attract any large crowds. At one recently organized protest “around nine people showed up,” he told reporters in Washington. “I think the Turks are very happy to have us there.”  [Global Security News]

You can read more at the link.

Russia said Saturday it will scrap a plan to deploy missiles near Poland since Washington has dumped a planned missile shield in Eastern Europe. It also harshly criticized Iran’s president for new comments denying the Holocaust.

Neither move, however, represented ceding any significant ground. A plan to place Iskander missiles close to the Polish border was merely a threat. And while the Kremlin has previously criticized Tehran for questioning the reality of the Holocaust, Russian leaders have refused to back Western push for tougher sanctions against Iran.

It still remains unclear whether Moscow will make any significant concessions on Iran and other issues in response to President Barack Obama‘s move to scrap the Bush-era plan for U.S. missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic.  [Associated Press]

I doubt the Kremlin will make any concessions other then these cosmetic ones simply because the decision to modify the European missile defense strategy was one I believe largely based on still developing capabilities and budget constraints rather then some grand deal with the Russians.

House Republican leader Rep. John Boehner of Ohio agreed. “It shows a willful determination to continue ignoring the threat posed by some of the most dangerous regimes in the world, while taking one of the most important defenses against Iran off the table.”

Anticipating that reaction, Gates said that “those who say we are scrapping missile defense in Europe are either misinformed or misrepresenting the reality of what we are doing. … I believe this new approach provides a better missile defense capability for our forces in Europe, for our European allies and eventually for our homeland than the program I recommended almost three years ago. It is more adapted to the threat we see developing and takes advantage of new technical capabilities available to us today.”  [Army Times]

Here is why the reaction of critics is not justified:

Raytheon’s land-based SM-3 program is the biggest winner from the administration’s decision to change its approach to defending allies against Iranian missiles.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former head of Strategic Command, both cited the system as a key part in why the administration changed its mind during their Thursday morning briefing.

Of course, Gates and Cartwright also made very clear that Iran had played a mighty significant part in changing the American approach. The 2006 intelligence assessment that Iran would fairly soon deploy intercontinental ballistic missiles has been superseded. Today, Cartwright said, the real threat does not come from four or five rogue state ICBMs but from literally hundreds of short- and medium-range missiles capable of striking Israel, Europe and US forces in the region. Hoss Cartwright noted that the Shahab 3 is “developing more rapidly than expected.”

The march of missile defense in Europe will now look like this. In 2011, Patriots will be deployed, and a regular force of two or three SM-3-bearing ships will patrol the North Sea and the Mediterranean, Cartwright said. The next phase, beginning in 2015, will lead to the deployment of SM-3 1Bs, the next iteration of the missile, along with the first deployment of the land-based SM-3. In 2018 the country will send SM-3 2s ashore and at sea. Finally, in 2020, the U.S. will deploy SM-3 2Bs.

In addition to the threat, cost drove the decision calculus, Cartwright said, ticking off these facts: a PAC interceptor costs $3.3 million; a THAAD missile costs $9 million; an SM-3 goes for about $10 million, and upgraded SM-3 will cost $13 million to $15 million; the Ground Based Interceptor previously planned for Europe would have cost $70 million each.  [DOD Buzz]

To summarize what is going on here is that a proven system the SM-3 missile which is currently sea based on AEGIS platforms is going to be converted into a land based platform to replace the previously planned installation of ground based interceptors in Poland.  The development of land based SM-3 missiles has long been discussed for Israel and now is becoming a reality for Europe and probably Israel as well.

Additionally the 360 degree X-band radar that was to be built in the Czech Republic will now no longer be built and instead replaced with a forward based X-band radar.  The 360 degree radar would have been very similar to the SBX radar currently stationed in the Pacific and the Russians were very concerned about this radar radiating over their territory.  The forward based X-band radar is a directional radar that is used for the THAAD missile system that also has two lone forward based radars in Japan and Israel.  This radar is reportedly going to be based in the Caucaus region which most likely means in the nation of Georgia.  In addition to the X-band radar and SM-3 land based interceptors the missile shield will be further augmented with PATRIOT missile batteries and AEGIS SM-3 equipped ships based out of the Mediteranian and North Sea.

So basically the Pentagon is fielding a proven capability to protect Europe from the Iranian missile threat while at the same time eliminating Russian objections while dramatically cutting costs because AEGIS SM-3 missiles costs $60 million dollars less then the GBI’s.  This is in actuallity a great idea and one that people seriously concerned with national security should support.

President Barack Obama has decided to scrap plans for a U.S. missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland that had deeply angered Russia, the Czech prime minister confirmed Thursday.

NATO’s new chief hailed the move as “a positive step” and a Russian analyst said Obama’s decision will increase the chances that Russia will cooperate more closely with the United States in the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.

Premier Jan Fischer told reporters that Obama phoned him overnight to say that “his government is pulling out of plans to build a missile defense radar on Czech territory.”

“The same happened with Poland. Poland was informed in the same way about this intention,” Fischer said.

He said Obama assured him that the “strategic cooperation” between the Czech Republic and the U.S. would continue, and that Washington considers the Czechs among its closest allies.

In Poland, officials declined to confirm Fischer’s remarks, saying they were waiting for a formal announcement from Washington.

The plan, proposed by the Bush administration, aimed to defend the United States and its European allies against a possible missile attack from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East. In all, 10 interceptor rockets were to have been stationed in Poland and a radar system based in the Czech Republic.  [Associated Press]