Korotchenko: Russia Should Participate in the Building and Operation of a Euro-Missile Defense System
Moscow, 13 December -- Russia's participation in the creation of a European missile defense system should provide for full-scale cooperation with NATO not only on questions of the joint evaluation of missile threats but also on defining the basic principles for building this system, its configuration, and the ideology of its operation, one of Russia's leading military experts, Igor Korotchenko, member of the Public Council under the Russian Federation Defense Ministry and chief editor of Natsionalnaya Oborona magazine, told RIA Novosti on Monday (13 December).
This is how he commented on Russian Federation Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov's statement to the effect that Russia is prepared to create its own sector of responsibility within a common European missile defense system.
"The North Atlantic Alliance, if it is seriously aiming for partnership, should provide Russia in good time with exhaustive information on the future configuration of the European missile defense system and the planned siting of the firepower, reconnaissance, and information systems that it incorporates and their locations in order to ensure full transparency and determine the possibility of the integration of the Russian air-space defense system's antimissile potential into the European missile defense system and identify its specific sector of responsibility," Korotchenko said.
According to him, the Russian expert community is prepared to make its contribution to the formulation of proposals for shaping the possible architecture of a European missile defense system that would combine the potential of Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance and ensure the defense of all European countries against possible missile strikes.
He believes that the Russian sector of responsibility within a common European missile defense system could include the countries of Eastern Europe and the Baltic as well as the European part of the Russian Federation.
"This would be the best practical confirmation that the North Atlantic Alliance no longer considers Russia a threat to itself," the expert said.
He noted that it is necessary to begin right now examining the question of the command center of the European missile defense system being linked by data exchange channels with the command center of the Russian Federation's air-space defense system, while a group of Russian military specialists would be included on on a permanent basis in the duty shift at the European that defense system command center.
In view of the fact that the European missile defense system that is being created will be based on the ground-based version of the Aegis system with SM-3 anti-missiles, Korotchenko also declared the need to formulate a procedure for notifying Russia beforehand of the sending of NATO warships equipped with the naval version of the Aegis system into sea areas adjacent to Russian territorial waters, since these systems are fully compatible and could collaborate on a real-time basis, providing a synergistic effect and dramatically increasing the potential of the European missile defense system.
Keyword Tags:
