BY
The United States switched on an $800 million missile shield in Romania on
Thursday that it sees as vital to defend itself and Europe from so-called rogue
states but the Kremlin says is aimed at blunting its own nuclear arsenal.
To the
music of military bands at the remote Deveselu air base, senior U.S. and NATO
officials declared operational the ballistic missile defense site, which is
capable of shooting down rockets from countries such as Iran that Washington
says could one day reach major European cities.
"As
long as Iran continues to develop and deploy ballistic missiles, the United
States will work with its allies to defend NATO," said U.S. Deputy Defence
Secretary Robert Work, standing in front of the shield's massive gray concrete
housing that was adorned with a U.S. flag.
Despite
Washington's plans to continue to develop the capabilities of its system, Work
said the shield would not be used against any future Russian missile threat.
"There are no plans at all to do that," he told a news conference.
Before the
ceremony, Frank Rose, deputy U.S. assistant secretary of state for arms
control, warned that Iran's ballistic missiles can hit parts of Europe,
including Romania.
When
complete, the defensive umbrella will stretch from Greenland to the Azores. On
Friday, the United States will break ground on a final site in Poland due to be
ready by late 2018, completing the defense line first proposed almost a decade
ago.
The full
shield also includes ships and radars across Europe. It will be handed over to
NATO in July, with command and control run from a U.S. air base in Germany.
Russia is
incensed at such of show of force by its Cold War rival in formerly
communist-ruled eastern Europe. Moscow says the U.S.-led alliance is
trying to encircle it close to the strategically important Black Sea, home to a
Russian naval fleet and where NATO is also considering increasing patrols.
"It
is part of the military and political containment of Russia," Andrey
Kelin, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official, said on Thursday, the
Interfax news agency reported.
"These
decisions by NATO can only exacerbate an already difficult situation," he
added, saying the move would hinder efforts to repair ties between Russia and
the alliance.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin's office said Moscow also doubted NATO's stated aim of
protecting the alliance against Iranian rockets following the historic nuclear
deal with Tehran and world powers last year that Russia helped to negotiate.
"The
situation with Iran has changed dramatically," Putin's spokesman Dmitry
Peskov said.
RETALIATION
The
readying of the shield also comes as NATO prepares a new deterrent in Poland
and the Baltics, following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. In response,
Russia is reinforcing its western and southern flanks with three new divisions.
Poland is
concerned Russia may retaliate further by announcing the deployment of nuclear
weapons to its enclave of Kaliningrad, located between Poland and Lithuania.
Russia has stationed anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles there, able to cover
huge areas and complicate NATO's ability to move around.
The
Kremlin says the shield's aim is to neutralize Moscow's nuclear arsenal long
enough for the United States to strike Russia in the event of war. Washington
and NATO deny that.
"Missile
defense ... does not undermine or weaken Russia's strategic nuclear
deterrent," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at the Deveselu
base.
However,
Douglas Lute, the United States' envoy to NATO, said NATO would press ahead
with NATO's biggest modernization since the Cold War. "We are deploying at
sea, on the ground and in the air across the eastern flanks of the alliance ...
to deter any aggressor," Lute said.
At a cost
of billions of dollars, the missile defense umbrella relies on radars to detect
a ballistic missile launch into space. Sensors then measure the rocket's
trajectory and destroy it in space before it re-enters the earth's atmosphere.
The interceptors can be fired from ships or ground sites.
The
Romanian shield, which is modeled on the United States' so-called Aegis ships,
was first assembled in New Jersey and then transferred to the Deveselu base in
containers.
While U.S.
and NATO officials are adamant that the shield is designed to counter threats
from the Middle East and not Russia, they remained vague on whether the radars
and interceptors could be reconfigured to defend against Russia in a conflict.
The United
States says Russia has ballistic missiles, in breach of a treaty that agreed
the two powers must not develop and deploy missiles with a range of 500 km
(310.69 miles) to 5,500 km. The United States declared Russia in non-compliance
of the treaty in July 2014.
The issue
remains sensitive because the United States does not want to give the
impression it would be able to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles that were
carrying nuclear warheads, which is what Russia fears.
(Additional
reporting by Jack Stubbs, Andrew Osborn and Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow; Editing
by Tom Heneghan)
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