The missile defense systems deployed in Romania and Poland allow for easy conversion into offensive systems, writes the US Navy Research Institute.
The organization spoke with Abraham Denmark, who currently leads Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Scientist Support Center and previously worked at the Pentagon. According to the expert, the transformation of Aegis Ashore facilities in Romania and Poland from a defensive position against Iranian ballistic missiles to an offensive position against Russia "is very easy", which, given NATO's sea and air-based missiles, could complicate Russian plans to protect against possible attacks from the European direction.
Denmark admits that such a transformation violates the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Short-Range Missiles (INF Treaty).
In October, US President Donald Trump, citing Russia's violation of the agreement and China's arms build-up, announced his intention to withdraw from the INF Treaty. The US head of state's national security adviser John Bolton, who visited Moscow, after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, confirmed Trump's plans. Reacting to the US statement on a possible withdrawal from the bilateral agreement, the Russian Federation noted the threat of a new arms race, and also allowed the adoption of retaliatory measures, the specific content of which was not disclosed by officials. In particular, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow, avoiding repeating the experience of the USSR, would not respond "with such costly methods."
The INF Treaty was signed by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1987. The agreement prohibits the parties from producing, testing and deploying ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles of medium (1000 to 5500 kilometers) and short (500 to 1000 kilometers) range, and also obliged the parties to eliminate the corresponding launchers. The agreement is exclusively bilateral in nature (on the part of the former USSR, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus are also involved in it, in addition to Russia), therefore, in particular, it does not affect China.
Russia considers the deployment of Mark 41 launchers in Romania and Poland as a gross violation of the INF Treaty, which are capable of launching not only RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 anti-missiles, but also Tomahawk cruise missiles (with a range of up to 2500 kilometers), reaching almost any target in the European part of Russia.
The United States accuses Russia of hiding the true capabilities of the 9M729 cruise missile of the Iskander-M complex, which is a land-based version of the sea-based Kalibr-NK missile (with a range of up to 1400 kilometers). The Pentagon believes that the ground-based missile has a range of up to 5,500 kilometers, and not 500 kilometers, as stated by the Russian Ministry of Defense.