RUSSIA'S RESPONSES TO EUROPEAN DEFENSE
The Kremlin's worries over European plans for missile defense have prompted a series of maneuvers by Moscow in recent weeks. Diplomatically, meanwhile, Russia is continuing its push to limit the scope and reach of Western defenses. According to Defense News (August 8), Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin recently met with officials in Norway and asked for guarantees that no U.S. military ships outfitted with anti-missile technology would be permitted in the northern seas.
At the same time, Moscow is moving to bolster its own missile defense capabilities. RIA Novosti (August 15) reports that by the middle of the decade, Russia plans to replace the antiquated 1970s-era missile defense system that surrounds Moscow with a new anti-missile grid built around the S-500 air-defense system. The S-500, currently under development by the Almaz-Antei defense-industrial conglomerate, will be capable of intercepting cruise missiles, theater-range ballistic missiles, and planes.
IRAN SEEKS ITS PLACE AS A GLOBAL MISSILE POWER
While NATO officials and the Obama administration may still be debating the need for missile defenses in Europe, the country against whom such a system will inevitably be oriented is steadily advancing in its ballistic missile capabilities. "The revelations made during [Iran's] recent Great Prophet 6 exercise, as well as Iran's belated admission of secret ballistic missile tests conducted last February in the Indian Ocean, are unprecedented and instructive," writes Uzi Rubin, Israel's foremost missile defense expert, in the August 15th edition of Defense News. "Taken together, this burst of information surprisingly volunteered by the Iranians indicates the intensity, the speed and the thoroughness with which their military and industry are preparing to jump-start intermediate-range and intercontinental ballistic missile (IRBM and ICBM) programs once their leaders decide to do so."
The implications, says Rubin, are ominous. "Iran's capacity to build longer-range missiles, its limitless maritime testing capability and its hardened underground silos for missiles - all these surfaced within a surprisingly short time. While the reason for this sudden Iranian candor remains vague, it certainly sheds a bright light on the outlines of a blueprint for building a strategic missile force that would give Iran's fanatical regime global clout."
CHINESE MISSILE DEVELOPMENT: MORE OF THE SAME
After months of delays, the Pentagon released its 2011 annual report to Congress on Chinese military power on August 24th. Like in previous years, the study points to a worrying pattern of Chinese military and security behavior - and to the mounting strategic challenge to the U.S. posed by the PRC. “China has closed important technological gaps and achieved some capabilities that are on par with or exceed global standards,” the study notes. China's goals remain focused on deterring outside powers from involvement in a potential war over Taiwan and increasing the nation’s ability to project power around the globe.
To achieve these objectives, the PRC continues to make significant improvements to the size and capability of its strategic arsenal. "China," the report outlines, "has prioritized land-based ballistic and cruise missile programs. It is developing and testing several new classes and variants of offensive missiles, forming additional missile units, upgrading older missile systems, and developing methods to counter ballistic missile defenses.” And while there has been little change over the past year in the country's short range missile capabilities, the PRC has clearly improved its medium- and long-range ballistic missiles capable of targeting land and sea adversaries.
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