The fact that the US didn’t reject the deployment of the European Missile Defense System after signing the nuclear agreement with Iran was considered by Moscow as a threat to Russia’s security. Moscow believes that the EMDS is breaking the strategic balance of forces, which can lead to serious conflicts.
The head of a department of the Fourth Central Research Institute of the Russian Defense Ministry, Colonel Oleg Pyshny, says that Moscow is closely monitoring the situation regarding the creation of the US missile defense systems, including the ones that are being deployed in Europe: “We are aware of the program for development, the program for creation of the anti-missile SM-3 family, or 'Standard-3', in our classification. Yes, we assume that in this anti-missile family a direct threat to us will eventually appear. Literally this year, the first throwing test of the anti-missile SM-3 Block 2 of the American classification was held, so far without interception, which caused concern on our part. Regarding the modification of 2A – 2A, this anti-missile system, albeit with minor delays, is created according the US plan. We expect that it may appear on American ships and on bases in Poland and Romania at the turn of 2018.”
“As for the more advanced anti-missile systems, quite understandable technical difficulties emerged there, it was stated that these anti-missile systems had such characteristics, that today it just could not be integrated into the Aegis system,” Pyshny said. “Our American partners presented this to us as some kind of political gesture, that today the implementation of the fourth stage of the adaptive approach, which is precisely where it was intended to use this anti-missile system, they temporarily refused. In our opinion, this is certainly not a political gesture. It is a clear and objective difficulty. Once and if they are allowed, I think we will immediately see that these plans are back in place. If this anti-missile missile will be created in accordance with the previously announced plans, it will be placed where the Americans see fit.”
At the same time, Oleg Pyshny notes that Russia takes all these threats into account while creating its missiles. “Creating all of our weapons systems, we always start from the worst options for the development of the situation. Therefore the necessary technical solutions to counter these missile defense systems are established in our most modern missile systems. It is difficult to cover this issue in detail. I want to say that the reserve, which we obtained at the stage of creation of the 'Topol' complex, will be useful here. Our modern facilities, such as the 'Yars' and 'Yars-M' are just like that, they have a significantly reduced initial portion of the flight, where we see the main threat from the European missile defense system. In addition, they have a complete set of additional measures and tools, which allow us to be confident that we will solve the problem in the worst scenario for us.”
