NATO DRAWS CLOSER TO RUSSIA...
Reuters (September 16) reports that, now that Washington and Moscow have signed New START, NATO is gravitating toward greater missile defense cooperation with the Kremlin. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has publicly urged closer interaction on missile defense issues as a confidence building between Russia and the Atlantic Alliance. "If Russia and other countries feel like they are inside the tent with the rest of us, rather than outside the tent looking in, it will build trust,” Rasmussen said in a major policy address in Rome. “Controls on conventional weapons make it easier to contemplate diminishing reliance on nukes."
...WHILE MOSCOW KEEPS THE HEAT ON WASHINGTON
Despite recent breakthroughs in arms control, missile defense remains a sticking point in the strategic relationship between Russia and the United States. According to Russia’s Itar-TASS news agency (September 17), Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov is expressing renewed concerns that American missile defenses may pose a threat to Russian strategic capabilities. “They tell us their missile shield is not aimed against us, but we tell them our calculations show it is aimed against us,” Serdyukov has said. In response, Russia is proposing closer interaction on the issue, starting with a joint U.S.-Russian “taskforce” that would meet to “exchange opinions on missile threats, assess them and provide recommendations on missile defense architecture,” including “where, how many and which” systems should be deployed by the United States.
DEFENDING ISRAEL’S NAVAL ASSETS
Israel’s navy is fielding a new missile defense concept to help counter short-range threats from the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups. According to the Jerusalem Post (September 12), the Israeli navy is currently testing a missile defense system for its small patrol boats – vessels that will be tasked with enforcing the blockade of the Gaza Strip in coming months. The new system “includes a radar, which detects and tracks incoming missiles, and uses an electronic warfare system to jam its signal and divert it from its course.” It will be deployed on the Israeli navy’s Super Dvora and Shaldag patrol boats as an advanced complement to the Phalanx and Barak anti-missile systems currently in use.
MORE U.S.-ISRAELI COOPERATION
As part of a new agreement just concluded between Washington and Jerusalem, the U.S. will help Israel bolster its defenses against short-range missile threats. Reuters (September 29) reports that the deal – announced by the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency – continues efforts initiated under a previous, 2008 missile defense accord, and is aimed at developing new systems that will help Israel “bolster its defenses against short-range and theater ballistic missiles, large-caliber rockets, and cruise missiles.” Among the projects covered by the new pact is the Stunner interceptor being jointly developed by Raytheon and Israel’s Rafael defense conglomerate as a low-cost, short-range complement to the Arrow 3 system.
FOR IRAN, NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION
Russia’s recent announcement that it will not supply Iran with units of its S-300 advanced anti-missile system has prompted the Islamic Republic to focus its efforts on building an indigenous missile defense system capable of protecting the country’s nuclear facilities from attack, Bloomberg (September 23) reports. "We have planned to build a long-range air defense missile system similar to S-300," Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has told reporters in Tehran. "By God's grace and with Iranian engineers' efforts, we will reach self- sufficiency."
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