A Standard Missile Three (SM-3) is launched from the guided missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67) during a joint Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Navy ballistic missile flight test. (Pacific Ocean - June 22, 2006) Source: United States Navy
BY KYLE D. CLAPHAM
NATO’s future ballistic missile defense passed its first significant operational test in early April, raising questions about how aggressively the alliance now will pursue the U.S.-led European missile shield that continues to elicit vehement opposition from Russia.
The new headquarters for ballistic missile defense in Ramstein, Germany, acted as a base linking all the various NATO assets, sharing information among early-warning satellites, ground- and sea-based sensor platforms, interceptors and command centers. NATO confirmed the test’s success a week later.
Components of the missile shield have been falling in place for some time. An American Aegis destroyer equipped with interceptor missiles is on constant patrol in the Mediterranean and a designated U.S. radar system has been operational in Turkey since January. Romania signed a deal for 24 interceptor missiles to be based there by 2015, and 24 more are planned for Poland by 2018.
Member nations consented to a European ballistic missile defense program at the last NATO summit, in November 2010.
“In Lisbon, the 28 leaders agreed that NATO would create and deploy a missile defense system to provide protection for NATO European populations, forces, and territory,” said Ivo Daalder, U.S. permanent representative to NATO, in a March 1 speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
“The first phases of that missile defense system are starting to be deployed. And when we get to Chicago in a few weeks’ time, we will be able to be in a position for NATO to take command and control of the NATO missile defense system and to provide a limited defense of a limited territory against a limited threat,” he said.
Iran is under U.N. sanctions preventing other nations from selling it missile-related technology, but in February, the country launched a new satellite into orbit, its third since 2009.
The U.S. and NATO have assured Russia the system is solely a defense against a potential Iranian threat, but without any guarantees, Moscow fears the missile shield will eventually become powerful enough to undermine its nuclear deterrent.
“We are engaged in discussions with the Russians to make clear that, one, these interceptors and this system is designed for a threat that comes from outside of Europe. It is not designed for the threat by Russia, which we don’t see as a threat. We no longer regard Russia as an enemy. We regard Russia as a partner,” Daalder said. “We want to work with Russia to find a way to cooperate on the deployment of missile defenses because we believe they’re threatened, too.”
NATO has rejected Moscow’s proposal to run the missile shield jointly, but it would be reasonable to share radar with Russia and allay concerns about the program’s future use, said Dennis Gormley, a senior lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh whose paper, “Cruise Missiles and NATO Missile Defense: Under the Radar?” was recently published by the French Institute of International Relations, a European think tank.
Both Gormley and George Lewis, a Cornell University physicist who has challenged the Pentagon’s assessment of Standard Missile 3, the featured weapon of President Obama’s missile defense plan, said pursuing the European missile shield will likely jeopardize Obama’s negotiations with Moscow to reduce nuclear stockpiles.
Arms reduction, said Lewis, is Russia’s only leverage.
