A United States missile defence system aimed at protecting European NATO Allies from ballistic missiles threats was declared operational at a ceremony in Deveselu, Romania on Thursday 12 May 2016. “Missile defense is essential to our common security”.
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“Now, after the deployment of those anti-missile system elements, we’ll be forced to think about neutralizing developing threats to Russia’s security”, Putin was quoted by RT online as saying.
The ceremony at Redzikowo, near the Baltic coast, marks the beginning of construction on a system created to shoot down short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles by the end of 2018.
The two defense complexes, created to protect the NATO’s eastern members, have escalated growing tension between the alliance and Russian Federation.
It is created to is created to intercept ballistic missiles after they leave the atmosphere and before they reenter.
The new system provides “both a quantitative and qualitative increase in NATO’s ballistic missile defense capability and capacity and strengthens North Atlantic Treaty Organisation defensive capabilities”, visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work said.
Launched in 2010, NATO’s anti-missile shield system – based essentially on United States technology – involves the progressive deployment of missile interceptors and powerful radar in eastern Europe and Turkey.
It will significantly reduce the risk of potential attacks from ballistic missiles from outside the Euro-Atlantic space, he said.
Almost eight years since Poland and America signed a deal on interceptor missiles, the foundation stone is formally being put in place, although builders have already been at the site of the former airstrip for some months.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned Washington that Moscow will consider measures to “end threats” from the USA anti-missile systems in Europe but said it would not be engaged in a new arms race.
The defensive nature of the system is also under question.
It will include 24 land-based SM-3 missiles as well as anti-aircraft systems.
Earlier this month, Andrei Kelin, another senior official from the Russian Foreign Ministry, described the deployment of the Aegis Ashore missile defense system as “a step toward the military and political containment of Russia”.
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Poland will break ground on the northern European wing of the US missile shield Friday, a day after Russian Federation condemned the defense umbrella as an act of aggression as Romania inaugurated rocket batteries to the south.
