After the signing of the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, the US State Department stated that it is not cancelling plans for a missile defense system in Europe. The US State Department said that Iran has the largest stock of ballistic missiles in the Middle East, therefore, "it remains a source of concern for the United States and the international community." Earlier, Washington expressed its readiness to abandon the construction of the European missile defense system if Tehran curtails its nuclear program.
A Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences, Konstantin Sivkov, believes that the European missile defense system is directed exclusively against Russia.
Firstly, even when the European missile defense system was created, all military experts spoke about the lack of linking it to the Iranian nuclear issue. The Iranian missile systems do not allow to reach Europe by the firing range. The most long-range missiles are about 2,000 kilometers, and it would get to Europe. It is quite obvious that the system was built exclusively against Russia.
Second, the complexes, that are consisting of the service of this missile defense system, are oriented at solving problems of reflecting short and medium-range missiles – 2000-2500. This limit is determined by the maximum permissible speed of the missile to the affected area of this complex. It is limited to somewhere around 4 km per second.
"You cannot expect that the system is created for the protection from Israeli missiles that have a range of shooting missiles somewhere around up to 5000-6000 km, and that this system provides target engagement,’’ says Sivkov. ‘’The United States officially disavowed its own cover, its reasons for the creation of a missile defense system, which they put forward at a time when they tore up the missile defense system treaty with Russia, and when they started the deployment of the Euro missile defense system 5 years ago "
According to the expert, "today the Russian economic potential is significantly weaker than that of the United States, so the response can only be symmetrical. The only answer that can be, in my opinion, an additional capacity of tactical missiles Iskander-M, Iskander-K, the creation of these missiles for nuclear warheads, to create the conditions to parry a possible threat from the general-purpose forces of NATO, which together are far superior to Russian forces. So with this nuclear capability, this tactical weapon, to deter possible threats."
Sivkov also calls for additional missile systems to be deployed, to create an additional threat to the American continent: "There may be different approaches. It is the creation and use of systems of long-range missiles X-102, X-101 class. And up to the creation of weapons capable of initiating serious destructive geophysical processes on the territory of the United States. In this respect, the United States is very vulnerable. It is the creation of super weapons of superlarge-caliber, which are able to carry out such actions."
These steps, according Sivkov, will make the creation of a missile defense system senseless, if we consider the missile defense system only as a system designed to deflect missiles.
