New Nato Missle Defense bas in Romainia to go live on thursday

[Theinquisition]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/wor...KNK/story.html


Looks like were gonna poke that big ol Tricycle riding Russian bear again


LONDON — NATO’s European missile defense system will go live on Thursday when a base in Romania becomes operational. The next day, Poland is scheduled to break ground on its NATO missile-defense base.

The decision by the United States and its allies in Eastern Europe to proceed with ballistic missile defense in the face of increasingly loud Russian criticism is an important stage in the alliance’s new stance toward Moscow.





Those deployments will be coupled this spring with major military exercises in Poland and the Baltics, with significant US participation and a beefed-up rapid reaction force of up to 5,000 troops.

“There will be a quite robust display of military power in Europe and allied resolve, and hopefully Moscow will see it for what it is, an alliance improving its capabilities, said Derek Chollet, a former US assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs,

At the biannual NATO summit meeting in Warsaw in early July, the main issues are expected to be Russia) and how to deal with threats to members like Turkey and Greece from the chaos of Syria, Iraq, Libya, and the Islamic State. The phrase “arc of instability” has reemerged in NATO-speak.

There is confusion about what useful purpose NATO can serve in the south. But there is more clarity on Russia, after its annexation of Crimea and its armed involvement in eastern Ukraine, its threats to the Baltic region, and its intervention in Syria.

Talk of “strategic partnership” is gone. Instead, there are calls to abandon the NATO-Russia Founding Act of 1997, which spoke of shared values and a commitment to peace. There is less emphasis on finding common ground with Russia than on setting clear limits.





The intention in Warsaw is to move from reassurance of eastern NATO allies to deterrence of Russia. That means more troops and equipment, longer deployments, bigger exercises and a persistent presence of NATO and US troops in countries like Poland and the Baltics.

At the 2014 NATO summit meeting in Wales, the alliance decided to rotate small numbers of troops through the Baltic region. Now NATO is planning to deploy four combat battalions of roughly 1,000 troops each in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Two of them are likely to be American, one German, and one British. And Washington will add a third combat brigade in Europe.

There will be discussion of how to re-create the infrastructure needed to move tanks quickly to Poland, which now takes at least a day.

How will Russia react? President Vladimir Putin views NATO as encircling Russia to limit its influence. Moscow argues that the only possible target of NATO’s missile defenses is Russia, now that Iran has agreed to limit its nuclear program.

Russia has already said it will create three new divisions along its western border and has threatened to put nuclear warheads on its new Iskander missiles and base them in Kaliningrad, territory bordering Poland and Lithuania that Moscow annexed after World War II.

Some NATO country officials, including in Poland, believe that Moscow already has nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad and will wait to announce that deployment in response to an operational missile defense, or as Moscow’s riposte to the NATO meeting.

Russia has been developing a ground-launched cruise-missile version of the Iskander that the departing NATO commander Gen. Philip M. Breedlove has said violates the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Washington.

[Deleted]

This sure will make Putin feel less tense.

[Pangean]

This sure will make Putin feel less tense.

Gonna trigger a few posters here as well.

[Independent voter]

It's just a missile defense system, it's not an offensive system.

[GennGreymane]

Gonna trigger a few posters here as well.

You can make a thread about cookies and trigger people on this forum.

[Pangean]

You can make a thread about cookies and trigger people on this forum.

True and in the end isn't that what popcorn is really for?

[GennGreymane]

True and in the end isn't that what popcorn is really for?

and cookies

[Cybran]

Let Americans waste their money.

[Independent voter]

Let Americans waste their money.

When are we setting up the missile system in Bulgaria?

[Ripster42]

When are we setting up the missile system in Bulgaria?

I think construction begins after the one in poland is done.

I don't actually know, just tweaking a nose.

[Theinquisition]

I think construction begins after the one in poland is done.

I don't actually know, just tweaking a nose.

I bet Cryban will be the first one applying for a civilian job.

Mista mista, you buy necklace!!

[Cybran]

I bet Cryban will be the first one applying for a civilian job.

I get plenty of money from Putin. I will the the first in line to block the construction and be rude to the American soldiers around it.

[Marcellus1986]

I get plenty of money from Putin. I will the the first in line to block the construction and be rude to the American soldiers around it.

Then you'll get shot and the world will be a better place without you.

[Eldar45]

Russians must be crapping themselves. Some people have tried to compare this to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Its not even remotely the same.

[Cannibalus]

It's basicly something along "if you spit on me i poop ur face". Why not?

[Independent voter]

I get plenty of money from Putin. I will the the first in line to block the construction and be rude to the American soldiers around it.

What's Putin paying you? Rubles? We pay in dollars.

[Marcellus1986]

What's Putin paying you? Rubles? We pay in dollars.

At least after all these years he's finally admitting to being a paid Russian shill.

[Skroe]

It's just a missile defense system, it's not an offensive system.

It is. But in theory - and it is just total conjecture on my part to be clear - the aegis ashore system is basically just the aegis combat system, vls, sensors, deckhouse and all - minus the boat part of an aegis destroyer or cruiser. Provided that aegis ashore has the software to launch it, there is no reason anything that uses the mark 41 vls couldn't be fired from it, and not just the sm-3 and sm-6 missions currently in there. That means tomahawks, essms and yes, even sm-6 in their new anti ship and land attack roles. And the ones in Romania could launch, again in theory, anti ship missiles at anything in the Black Sea and north Eastern Mediterranean.

Will it be used in such a way? Probably not. But the modularity of the the Mk 41 and aegis is one of its selling points, and one of the selling points of aegis ashore was to be a simple build of the aegis combat system minus the boat. I could see them maybe doing it if they add more vls tubes in future years. Again, there is no reason why they couldn't. It's just using a modular system modularity.

- - - Updated - - -

When are we setting up the missile system in Bulgaria?

I think a radar is planned for Bulgaria but the next aegis ashore just broke ground in Poland. The one in Romania will cover Bulgaria. If we wanted more coverage, Norway would be the next best spot. That would cover every meter of Europe from Russian or medium and intermediate range ballistic missiles. If we wanted redundant coverage, Germany and Italy would be ideal.

We need to keep in mind that this is 'new' only to a point. The two sites will allow the US to stop deploying 4 of the 26 aegis bmd destroyers (a subset of the Arleigh Burke class). Right now the us needs 4 destroyers to cover Europe because the size of the ship means a physical size limit to the radar. Aegis ashore has a larger and more powerful radar than the burkes due to the lack of ship size constraints and so only need the two sites to cover Europe.

The navy is jumping for joy because they really don't like ships means to defend strike groups against missiles being tied down defending land. Also they get to use the ships for pacific deployments and save money. Aegis ashore is just fantastically economical if you want to use aegis bmd In a fixed location. Look for sites popping up in Japan, Australia, the Philippines and Guam in coming years, ostensibly to defend against North Korea.

[Deleted]

It's just a missile defense system, it's not an offensive system.

This isn't some shitty anime where your power switches from defense stance to attack stance and you can only do one thing at a time.

[Deleted]

This isn't some shitty anime where your power switches from defense stance to attack stance and you can only do one thing at a time.

Yeah, because it is real fucking smart to launch conventional missiles against the country with the largest nuclear arsenal in the word.