“We keep considering destructive activity of the United States and its allies in the sphere of missile defense as a direct threat to global and regional security and stability”, Zakharova told Tass.
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U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th (CNE-CNA/C6F), recognized a key milestone to complete Phase II of the European Phased Adaptive Approach by deeming the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System in Romania as operationally certified in a ceremony held in Deveselu, today.
The missile defence station at Deveselu in Romania will have a battery of SM-2 missile interceptors and will be formally merged into the Nato missile shield at the July Nato summit meeting in Warsaw, The Guardian reported.
In October, at a meeting of the meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Russia, Russian President Vladimir accused the USA of “lying” about a “hypothetical Iranian threat, which never existed” and called the system “an attempt to destroy the strategic balance”.
“The system is not aimed against Russian Federation”.
Moscow said the system was part of a policy of containing Russian Federation militarily and politically.
The US is also planning to start construction of a second base for the program, in Poland, even further out of the range of Iranian missiles, and even closer to Russian soil. The Corporation leveraged lessons learned from its more than 40 years of Aegis experience to fulfill the United States’ desire to conduct new missions with existing capabilities.
“This site in Romania, as well as the one in Poland, are not directed against Russia”, Stoltenberg said at the opening ceremony.
The site first broke ground October 28, 2013.
The Deveselu base is the first to feature the Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense system, a land-based version of the sophisticated radar-tracking system installed on US warships since 2004.
Activation of the shield, which is located at the remote Deveselu air base in Romania, also comes as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation prepares a new deterrent in Poland and the Baltics, following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. U.S. ship-based systems of this type are capable of launching both interceptor missiles and medium-range cruise missiles Tomahawk.
Last fall, Russian security officials appeared to drop hints of another military response to the missile-defense system: a nuclear-armed drone submarine.
The officials also stress the shield is not directed against Russian Federation.
A 2015 article in NATO Review magazine, which is published by the alliance, counters that Moscow’s missile defense opposition is politically motivated.
For years the U.S. has been testing the Aegis system on warships too.
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The U.S. has said that deal addresses the nuclear threat, not the missile threat. A USA miss.
