MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The missile defense system being developed by the United States could pose a threat to Russia's security in the future, Volter Kraskovsky, former commander of the Russian space missile defense forces, said on Thursday commenting on statements made by the U.S. military that the missile defense system is not aimed against Russia.
The deployment of American missile interceptors in Alaska and also plans for their deployment in Europe, particularly in Britain and Poland, could be viewed as an attempt to exert pressure on Russia, the general said.
"The U.S. withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is within this policy. In doing so, the U.S. has untied its hands to further militarize outer space," Kraskovsky said.
He said he assumed that under the pretext of setting up a national missile defense system, the U.S. is planning to deploy offensive weapons in outer space.
"National Missile Defense is allegedly intended for protecting the territory of the U.S. and other countries from missile strikes of the so-called rogue states. But in fact, the NMD's offensive nature is much more visible. It is intended for creating conditions for fully blocking return strike or retaliatory assets of any eventual enemy," Kraskovsky said.
Given that missiles can be detected and destroyed most efficiently at the initial trajectory section, the U.S. is trying to move intelligence, information and attack assets as close to the Russian border as possible, he argued.
"Radars are already deployed in the northwestern sector, in the Baltic states, and they will be able to monitor our missiles at the initial flight stage. Now what is left to do is to deploy missile interceptor launchers near the Russian borders," the expert said.
According to him, U.S. plans to deploy attack assets, namely combat platforms for laser, thermal, electro-magnetic or other new types of weapons, in the near space are quite real.
Kraskovsky added that Russia has spent nearly no money on missile defense in the past decade and will not be able to counteract to up-to-date aerospace attack means in case of necessity.