US Designed European Sky Shield Initiative to Escalate Tension With Russia, Analyst Says
© AFP 2023 / DANIEL MIHAILESCU
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Fourteen NATO member states and Finland, which is in the process of joining the military bloc, signed a letter of intent on October 13 for the development of a European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI). The Germany-led initiative envisages creating a common European air and missile defense system.
Fourteen European member states of NATO and Finland agreed to jointly acquire air defense equipment and missiles earlier this week "to strengthen their deterrence and defense in an efficient and cost-effective way," according to the alliance's website. The new assets will be fully interoperable with NATO's Integrated Air and Missile Defense.
"A proposed EU-wide missile defense system is a pipe dream, hatched in the minds of western defense contractors and the US and EU politicians that they pay lobby money to," said political analyst Joe Quinn. "Any such system implies, of course, a clear and present threat to Europe from Russia, since Russia is the only country that could plausibly present such a threat. The problem is that there is no military threat to Europe from Russia, except the threat the EU, and in particular the US, seems determined to create out of nothing."
The NATO press release specifically cites Russia's special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine as a trigger for the move. Moscow’s latest precision strikes on military and infrastructure facilities across Ukraine followed the October 8 terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stated on Wednesday that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate was behind the blasts which killed four civilians and damaged the bridge.
Prior to the bombing of the Crimean bridge, three of four Nord Stream natural gas pipelines were blasted in the Baltic Sea. The sabotage was hailed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a "tremendous opportunity" for the EU to reduce dependence on Russia's fuel.
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According to Quinn, the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) is "almost certainly designed" to further escalate tensions between the US/EU and Russia. The political analyst explained that "any such 'air defense' system would undoubtedly have dual use, i.e. defensive and offensive,” hence NATO's remark that the new shield will boost both "deterrence and defense" of the bloc's European allies.
"As such, this proposal is undoubtedly the brain-child of the 'exceptionalists' in Washington DC and a few corrupt warmongers in major European nations, who have long sought to provoke Russia into direct conflict with Europe, thereby destroying Russo-European relations and, in theory, securing US dominance over Europe for the foreseeable future," suggested Quinn.
The US already operates two Aegis Ashore ballistic missile sites in Romania and Poland. Several years ago, Moscow warned that the Aegis deployments could be detrimental for Europe's peace and stability due to their offensive capabilities. For their part, NATO officials tried to alleviate Russian concerns by claiming that the Aegis systems were purely defensive and primarily aimed at shielding Europe from Iran's ballistic missile threat. Ironically, the officials' remarks came shortly after the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal – by Tehran, the US and major European nations.
14 October 2022, 22:55 GMT
"Certainly, the enlargement of NATO is one of the US' long-term goals, however, only a handful of the 'usual suspect' European nations would likely be willing to host such a missile system, primarily the Baltic states, Poland and Romania, although the latter two already have Aegis systems installed on their territory," Quinn said. "A move by any of the Baltic states in this direction would, however, put them in the cross hairs of Russia's 'missile defense' capabilities. As such, short of the Baltic states developing a 'death wish', it is unlikely that any significant movement on this project will materialize."
In addition to the ESSI initiative, NATO member states pledged to boost Ukraine's air defense capabilities. In particular, Germany announced on Monday that it will provide the first of four new IRIS-T air defense systems to Ukraine within days. For his part, US President Joe Biden promised his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky that Washington would "continue providing Ukraine with the support needed to defend itself, including advanced air defense systems."
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby noted on Tuesday that the US was speeding up the delivery of eight National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) promised to Ukraine. "We think that we’re on track to get those first two over there in the very near future," Kirby said as cited by Reuters.
Last month the Biden administration announced that the US would provide Ukraine with $600 million in military assistance in addition to an August package amounting to nearly $3 billion. Since 2014, the US has provided over $19.6 billion in military assistance to Kiev, according to the White House.
