With Russia at odds over the Bush administrations proposal for a “missile defense system in Europe” the rhetoric does not go away. A recent report by George Lewis and Theodore Postol suggests:

“Like its predecessors, the system has serious technological deficiencies.” [The European missle defense folly, by George Lewis & Theodore Postol]

The goal of such a system according to the article is “to provide a defense of Europe against a limited intermediate and long-range ballistic missile attack from the Middle East and provide additional capability to the current missile defense system located in Alaska and California to defend the United States.”

Further the system would be deployed as follows:

A large X-band radar called the European midcourse radar (EMR) would be deployed in the Czech Republic; a forward-based X-band (FBX) radar would be deployed at an unspecified location near Iran, possibly in eastern Turkey or Georgia; and a launch site with 10 ground-based interceptors would be located in Poland. These new components would be aided by an existing, upgraded early warning radar at the Fylingdales Air Force Base in Britain.[The European missle defense folly, by George Lewis & Theodore Postol]

Continued deployment of such a system can bring definate political troubles for Moscow and for the United States. As such the winds of war could be ramped up even more as the current and future administrations devote themselves to putting in systems that bring the ‘cold war’ and the ‘cuban missle crisis’ to another meeting. It is this that would certainly bring to America a negative reaction if the Russians wanted to deploy missles in Canada, Mexico, or Cuba.

To read the whole report click below:
European Missle Defense Folly PDF

Originally posted 2008-04-23 13:08:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter