Russian ICBMs Can 'Outwit' NATO Missile Shield

Last week, a new Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense system went online at the Deveselu airbase in Romania – one of the integral elements of NATO’s so called 'missile shield' in Europe and another stage of what German journalist Florian Rotzer called "a new nuclear race between the US and Russia."

According to Rotzer, the missile shield’s purpose is twofold: while it is used to apply more pressure to Russia, the NATO member-states 'protected' by the shield are forced to pay with their technological, military and political independence for their safety.

With AN/TPY-2 early warning system installed in Turkey in 2011 and NATO warships equipped with SM-3 interceptor missiles patrolling the Mediterranean, most of the missile shield's components are already in place, as another Aegis Ashore system is due to be deployed in Poland in 2018, Rotzer writes at Telepolis online magazine.

The NATO officials keep insisting that the missile shield is not aimed against Russia, but serves to protect Europe against long-range ballistic missiles launched from the Middle East, specifically from Iran, but these claims don’t sound very convincing to Moscow, Rotzer points out.

"Even the most credulous people should realize that Iran can’t be portrayed as the only threat to NATO, but all claims about the missile shield being deployed against Russia are constantly being denied," Rotzer remarks.

However, even as the US withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 which imposed limitations on ballistic missile defense systems, Russia warned that it could develop missiles capable of defeating any countermeasures the US could muster, the journalist reminds.

And even as the NATO missile shield comes in place, the Russian-made Topol ICBMs can ‘outwit’ it, he concludes.