Ivanov: U.S. BMD Meant to Weaken Russian Deterrance
November 29, 2006 :: AP :: News
U.S. plans to build a missile defense site in Eastern Europe are designed “to weaken Russia’s deterrence potential,” according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. U.S. officials are currently in negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic, and have indicated that the site is intended to defend Europe against ballistic missiles from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. Yet Ivanov was recently quoted by Belarus’ Soyuznoye Gosudarstvo magazine as stating, “We are told that this system is allegedly intended to intercept Iranian ballistic missiles. But Iran has no missiles of this class and is unlikely to obtain them in the foreseeable future.” He continued: “The U.S.-declared threat, which can allegedly be countered by the system under development, is only an attempt to cover up efforts to change strategic stability and to weaken Russia’s deterrence potential.” Ivanov also said that deployment of part of the U.S. system near the border of Belarus would do nothing to boost security in Europe. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Former Soviet Republics, Russia
Report: Russia Extends Lifetime of SS-18 ICBMs
November 11, 2006 :: Interfax :: News
Interfax reports that the Russia has extended the service lifetime of the SS-18 Satan (RS-20V) intercontinental ballistic missile. According to Colonel-General Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, the decision extends the original 15-year service lifetime of one of the world’s most powerful missiles to 25 years. The SS-18, which carries 10 individually targetable nuclear warheads, has been the heaviest missile in the Russian military’s inventory since its deployment began in the late 1980s. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia
» Missile details: SS-20
Russia Sends S-300P Systems to Belarus
November 10, 2006 :: AFP :: News
The AFP reports that Russia has sent four S-300P (SA-10 Grumble) air/missile defense systems to Belarus, said to be in retaliation for the recent delivery of U.S.-made F-16 fighters to Poland. According to an unnamed source in the Moscow-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the four S-300 systems “have already been put into service” in Belarus. The S-300P is capable of tracking and destroying ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and low-flying aircraft. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Former Soviet Republics, Proliferation, Russia
» Missile system details for: S-300P (SA-10 Grumble)
Russia Test-Fires SS-19 Stiletto from Baikonur Cosmodrome
November 9, 2006 :: UPI :: News
Russia today test-launched an SS-19 Stiletto (RS-18) intercontinental ballistic missile from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The missile reportedly carried a dummy warhead and hit its target at the Kura missile training range in Kamchatka, according to a spokesman from the Russian Space Forces. Russia has about 360 silo-based SS-19 missiles in operation, each with a range of 9,000 km and capable of carrying six warheads. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia, Testing - Foreign
» Missile details: SS-21 A
» Missile system details for: Baikonur Cosmodrome
Russian General Condemns U.S. Missile Defense, Threatens “Retaliatory Measures”
October 18, 2006 :: MosNews :: News
A senior Russian general has stated that Russia would view the deployment of U.S. missile defense components in Eastern and Central Europe as a security threat and would take retaliatory measures. According to Yevgeny Buzhinsky, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s international military cooperation department, “the deployment of missile defense near the Russian borders could pose a real threat to our deterrent forces”—that is, Russia’s offensive nuclear arsenal. Buzhinsky, who published his comments yesterday in the Russian daily Izvestiya, added that “we would view [the deployment] as an unfriendly gesture on behalf of the United States, some eastern European nations, and NATO as a whole. Such actions would require taking adequate retaliatory measures of military and political character.” The Russian general did not elaborate on how Russia would respond to the deployment of U.S. missile defense assets in Poland or the Czech Republic, but warned that “a buildup of military potential near the Russian borders wouldn’t strengthen the European security.” (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia, Allies
Baluyevsky Demands BMD Clarification from U.S.
October 17, 2006 :: RIA-Novosti :: News
RIA-Novosti reports that General Yuri Baluyevsky, Russia’s Chief of Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister, yesterday demanded that the U.S. must “clarify” its plans for deployment of anti-missile interceptors in Europe. Baluyevsky, a steady critic of U.S. defensive efforts, demanded to know “whether the missile defense system in Europe will be developed jointly with Russia, or whether it will be a segment of the U.S. national system without Russia’s participation.” Baluyevsky previously stated, in an article published by the Polish daily Dziennik on September 6, that “deploying the large-scale U.S. anti-missile shield threatens to spark a new arms race.” (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia
IBD on the “Spirit of Reykjavik”
October 11, 2006 :: Investor’s Business Daily :: Analysis
This week marks the twentieth anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s bold stand against trading missile defense for an arms treaty, writes Investor’s Business Daily in an editorial entitled “Reykjavik Forever.” In October 1986, during a meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland, the Soviet premier unexpectedly offered an unprecedented reduction in nuclear weapons. His price was that the U.S. abandon all but the most rudimentary research on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which Reagan had called “a new hope for our children in the 21st century.” According to contemporary accounts, Reagan gathered his papers, stood, and told Gorbachev, “No way.” Criticism and derision followed immediately. U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar compared SDI to France’s disastrous Maginot Line in World War II. In a New York Times op-ed, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), said “Star Wars is a physical and technological impossibility,” adding that “it is difficult to believe that any other president since World War II would have ignored the opportunity that knocked at Reykjavik.” Claiborne Pell (D-RI), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, lamented, “This is a sad day for mankind.” Yet as Investor’s Business Daily points out, “history proved the critics all wrong—including the scores of scientists who knew so much better than this simpleton who somehow landed in the White House.” In several years, Gorbachev was gone, and the Soviet Union imploded. At the time of Reagan’s death, Gennady Gerasimov, senior Soviet foreign ministry spokesman admitted that SDI had been “a very successful blackmail.”
As for SDI, Investor’s Business Daily adds that “today, U.S. interceptor missiles that can stop incoming nuclear warheads in space—Teddy Kennedy’s ‘physical and technological impossibility’—are an operational reality.” This is only partially true. The U.S. has deployed the ground-based midcourse defense system in Alaska and California, which recently intercepted a live target missile. Reagan’s vision for strategic defenses, however, has yet to come. The U.S. has not yet deployed the necessary space-based missile defense assets, such as Brilliant Pebbles, capable of targeting and destroying long-range ballistic missiles in mid-trajectory. Most of the U.S., including the East Coast, remains vulnerable to ballistic missile attack, as does the entire homeland from a ship-launched short range ballistic missile against a coastal city. On the twentieth anniversary of Reykjavik, while celebrating Reagan’s bold stand against trading away missile defense, Americans should also ask when the U.S. will implement the former President’s full vision for the strategic defense of the nation. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Space-Based Systems, Russia, Policy, Analysis
» Missile system details for: Brilliant Pebbles
Ivanov Threatens Poland on U.S. Missile Defense Site
October 11, 2006 :: RIA-Novosti :: News
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov yesterday attacked U.S. plans to deploy ballistic missile defense systems in Poland, reports RIA Novosti. “The announced purpose [of the deployment] is the interception of Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles, which have never existed and will not exist in the near future,” Ivanov said. He added, “I think everyone here understands against whom they [BMD systems] can be used,” meaning Russia. Ivanov said Russia views the U.S. plans as “a destabilizing element and an attempt to shift the strategic balance.” He also noted his “surprise” at Poland’s interest in the project, but attempted to dismiss growing fears that Poland could become a potential target of Russia’s armed forces. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia, Allies
China Purchases Sixteen S-300PMU2 Batteries from Russia
October 9, 2006 :: Interfax :: News
China has purchased sixteen S-300PMU2 batteries from Russia, reports Interfax. The S-300PMU2 air/missile defense missile system has a range of 200 km and is capable of tracking and destroying ballistic missiles. Interfax quotes Vladislav Menshikov, director-general of the Almaz-Antey air defense consortium, the maker of the S-300PMU2, as saying, “We are fulfilling a contract to deliver eight batteries of S-300PMU2 Favorit missile systems to China, after which we’ll switch to another contract of the same size that came into force recently.” (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia, Proliferation, China
» Missile system details for: S-300P (SA-10 Grumble)
Polish Daily: Romania and U.K. Supercede Poland in Missile Defense “Game”
October 11, 2006 :: BBC Worldwide Monitoring :: News
Poland has been superceded by Romania and the United Kingdom in the “game” for a new U.S. missile defense site, writes Eugeniusz Janula in the Polish daily Trybuna. “When one glances at a world atlas,” writes Janula, “there is not the slightest doubt that the most convenient location for an installation of this type is in the region of northern Norway or the U.K.’s Orkney or Shetland Islands.” From these locations, the U.S. could effectively intercept missiles coming in from the Middle East and South Asia, such as from Iran, as well as from the Kola Peninsula where Russia has deployed a considerable portion of its missile arsenal. Yet Norway declined and the U.K. likewise did not show much enthusiasm. So the U.S. began confidential talks with Poland and the Czech Republic. According to Janula, “the Czechs quickly realized that they were not the objective,” since a missile defense base built on their territory would not have “universal application.” In the case of Poland, “the Americans might discuss many things, but they would never consent to any control over such an important base,” and thus “Poland has dropped out of the game.” Janula claims that the U.S. now plans to set up a “small, temporary base with 8-10 semi-stationary launchers” in Romania, which will serve as a purely anti-Iranian installation. More importantly, he writes, the U.K. has revised its stance and will now make the Orkney Islands accessible for a “second base of universal application.” For this, the British will obtain “state-of-the-art nuclear submarine technologies, the naval version of the F-35 plane which will supplant the Harriers on British aircraft carriers, as well as other technological benefits.” (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia, Iran, Allies
» Missile system details for: Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
