While Russia gives the illusion of looking for missile defense cooperation, it has waged a full-scale campaign against U.S. missile defenses. Dmitry Rogozin, special representative of the president of the Russian Federation for interaction with NATO in missile defense, recently stated that Moscow has been working to bring the issue of the European missile shield to a “broad open discussion.” Rogozin’s comments followed a meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store. Consider another statement by Rogozin: “It is obvious that the missile shield planned to be established on the …
The Obama Administration’s “reset” policy with the Russian Federation is failing in yet another important aspect of this relationship: its predictability regarding the development of each country’s respective nuclear forces. This is despite the Obama Administration touting the New Strategic Arms Control Treaty (New START) as one of the greatest accomplishments of the reset policy. The list of U.S. “reset” concessions is extensive: unilateral cuts of U.S. strategic nuclear forces, abandonment of missile defense deployments in Poland and the Czech Republic, neglect of Russian aggressiveness in the areas of the …
The recent statements by Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian President’s Special Representative for Missile Defense Cooperation with NATO, raised hackles in Washington. Putin called the U.S. a “parasite” on the body of global economy, while Rogozin claimed that U.S. Senators told him U.S. missile defense is aimed at his country. Putin’s statements are baffling, as the global economy needs consumer consumption for growth—and the United States is by far the biggest consumer country. In fact, the U.S. trade deficit drives a lot of global growth. Putin spoke at …
The French Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and the Armed Forces recently released a report called “Ballistic Missile Defense: Military Shield or Strategic Challenge?” This report urges France to take a strong role in the NATO missile defense program and to develop a space-based (exoatmospheric) ballistic missile defense interceptor. This would be a great step in the right direction for NATO and the French defense industry—one the United States should learn from. Space-based interceptors present the best option for a boost-phase missile defense. In the boost phase, ballistic missiles …
“The Obama administration continues to demonstrate its penchant for bargaining away missile defense,” write James Woolsey, chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and Rebeccah Heinrichs, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former manager of the Congressional Missile Defense Caucus, in their most recent op-ed. This is indeed the case, as shown by negotiations over New START and other Administration steps pertaining to missile defense. New START’s preamble links strategic offensive and defensive …
According to The New York Times, Russia is seeking written guarantees that missile defense systems deployed in Europe by the U.S. and NATO in the future will not threaten Russia. The U.S., NATO, and Russia are in the midst of negotiations regarding the broader topic of missile defense cooperation. On the face of it, it would appear that the Russian demand is reasonable, because missile defense systems are not offensive and inherently pose no threat to the territory of any state. Surface appearances, however, are deceiving—because Russian statements last year, …
Recently, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that Russia might withdraw from New START—the strategic arms control agreement between the Russian Federation and the United States that entered into force on February 4—if the United States does not provide Moscow with a legally binding guarantee that the European Phased Adaptive Approach (the Obama Administration’s plan for protection of Europe) will not be targeted against Russia. This is probably not what Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, director of the Missile Defense Agency, had in mind when he testified about New START …
Yesterday, members of the House Armed Service Committee, under the leadership of Representative Michael Turner (R–OH) increased the funding for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program in the fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget. Members of the committee decided to increase the funding for this program by $100 million above the Obama Administration’s $1.2 billion request. By taking this step, the committee attempted to remedy an almost 15 percent cut from the missile defense program in the FY 2010 compared to the FY 2009 level that would have left the United …
Last week, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov caused a stir among the U.S. and European proponents of missile defenses. Talking about the Obama Administration’s recent proposal for the Russian participation in the Phased Adaptive Approach, a missile defense plan for Europe and the United States, Ivanov bluntly stated that the Russian Federation “insist[s] on only one thing: that we’re an equal part of [U.S. missile defense system in Europe].” To make absolutely clear what Ivanov means, he elaborated: “In practical terms, that means our office will sit, for …
In the wee hours of the morning of April 15, the U.S. Navy conducted a successful test of its Aegis ballistic missile defense system. The test marks a major milestone in U.S. missile defense capabilities because it signals that the Aegis system’s existing interceptor, the Standard Missile-3 Block IA (SM-3 IA), likely has an inherent capability to counter strategic missiles. This is because the target missile destroyed in this intercept test, which is of intermediate range, has characteristics that are not that different from strategic missiles. On this basis, the …
