US invites Russia to measure missile-defense test
WASHINGTON. October 19. KAZINFORM The United States has invited Russia to use its own radars and other sensors to size up one or more US missile-defense flight tests as part of a new push to persuade Moscow that the system poses it no threat, a Pentagon official said on Tuesday; Kazinform refers to China Daily.
The idea is to let Russia measure for itself the performance of US interceptor missiles being deployed in and around Europe in what Washington says is a layered shield against missiles that could be fired by countries like Iran.
"These are smaller missiles," Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly, director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, told a forum hosted by the Atlantic Council. He referred to current and planned Standard Missile-3 interceptors built by Raytheon Co.
They would be ineffective as anti-missile interceptors against a country like Russia, whose strategic deterrent missiles are launched from deep inside its territory, he said. The SM-3 interceptor, to be based on land and at sea, "can't reach that far."
President Barack Obama pleased the Kremlin in 2009 by scrapping his predecessor's plan for longer-range interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar installation in the Czech Republic, a move that helped to improve US-Russian ties.
But Moscow says that Obama's revised version, which includes participation by Romania, Poland, Turkey and Spain, could undermine Russia's security if it becomes capable of neutralizing Russia's nuclear deterrent and has warned of a new arms race if its concerns are not met.
Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, told the forum that the United States was prepared to offer Moscow written assurances that the system being built is not directed against Moscow; Kazinform cites China Daily.
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