Costly US Missile Defense Systems in Romania, Poland Unlikely to Work

© Flickr / US Army Corps of Engineers Europe DistrictThe US Army Corps of Engineers Europe District is managing the construction of a $134 million Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Complex in Deveselu, Romania
The US  Army Corps of Engineers Europe District is managing the construction of a $134 million Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Complex in Deveselu, Romania - Sputnik International
Subscribe
The land-based US Aegis missile defense system being deployed this week in Romania and to Poland by 2018 are unlikely to even work in their basic goal of intercepting incoming ballistic threats, experts told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Earlier on Thursday, the US Aegis Ashore missile defense system was officially inaugurated at a military base in Romania, and the construction of a similar complex will begin in Poland on Friday due to be completed by 2018.

"It will mostly make the United States, and to a lesser extent the European Union, poorer, as the missile defense systems are wildly cost-inefficient, of dubious effectiveness, and unlikely to ever be actually used," Antiwar.com senior analyst Jason Ditz said.

The US anti-missile station Aegis Ashore Romania is pictured at the military base in Deveselu, Romania - Sputnik International
US Missle Shield in EU Designed to Provoke Russia – Global Peace Activist

Far from defending Poland, the Aegis battery would put the country in greater danger in the event of any outbreak of war, because alarmed Russian military planners would respond to the perceived threat by countering the move with more missiles of their own, Ditz predicted.

"The only real security impact will be to provoke a reaction from Russia, which will likely deploy more missiles into Kaliningrad to negate any putative shift in strategic balance the system might create."

Russia could counter the Aegis strategic buildup cost-effectively at far less effort than Pentagon planners had exerted to deploy it in the first place, Ditz explained.

"This will likely cost Russia considerably less than the missile defense system designed to target those missiles."

The US  Army Corps of Engineers Europe District is managing the construction of a $134 million Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Complex in Deveselu, Romania - Sputnik International
By Ensuring Own Security, US 'Requires Vulnerability' of Other Nations
The end result would probably be that the Aegis deployment would trap Russia and NATO member states alike in an expensive and exhausting new round of weapons deployments that noone on either side really wanted or needed, Ditz continued.

The deployment will be a waste for Moscow as well because war between NATO and Russia is still so unthinkable that these systems are likely to sit unused on the frontier, he added.

Historian and leading US military tactician, retired Army Colonel Doug Macgregor said the deployment of the Aegis system, while infuriating Russian leaders, was unlikely to improve any kind of effective deterrent at all because it was unlikely to prove effective against Russian systems.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала