The United States approved the sale of air defense and missile defense systems to Warsaw. This issue is a long–standing stumbling block between Washington and Moscow, but in the days when Poland is trying to make the main NATO outpost in Europe, the implementation of such plans becomes an existential threat to Russia. Why should the Americans build up missile defense and air defense systems in Poland and how should Russia respond to these actions?
The US State Department has approved the possible sale to Poland of an integrated air defense (air defense) and missile defense (ABM) combat control system. The price of the issue, as reported by Reuters with reference to the US Department of Defense, is $ 15 billion. We are talking about 48 Patriot SAM launchers and 644 missiles for them, as well as auxiliary equipment and spare parts for missile defense systems.
The procurement contractors will be Raytheon and Lockheed Martin – captains of the US military industry. In particular, Raytheon produces Patriot air defense systems, Stinger MANPADS and Tomahawk cruise missiles, and Lockheed Martin produces Javeline ATGMs, F-16 fighters and many other types of equipment.
Recall that the development of the American air defense and missile defense system in Poland has been a long-standing problem for Moscow since the 2000s, when the United States withdrew from the Anti-Missile Defense Treaty and began turning Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania into positional areas for its missile defense. This topic has been a constant subject of disagreement between Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his colleagues in the person of first Condoleezza Rice, and then Hillary Clinton. The President of Russia also paid special attention to this.
"We took and liquidated bases in Vietnam, Cuba. We have withdrawn our military units from Eastern Europe, and have withdrawn almost all large and heavy weapons from the European part of Russia. And what did you get? A base in Romania, a base in Bulgaria, a positional area of the American missile defense system in Poland, in the Czech Republic. This all means the advancement of military infrastructure to our borders," Vladimir Putin told his colleagues in 2008 following a meeting of the Russia–NATO Council.
However, since then, the United States has continued to aggravate the situation by placing and selling launchers of its systems in Eastern Europe, which can be used not only as defensive, but also as strike complexes. All this is superimposed on the already confrontational relations between Warsaw and Moscow over Ukraine, Kaliningrad and historical issues.
Earlier, the newspaper VZGLYAD wrote in detail that Polish military appetites in Ukraine are constantly growing. This concerns not only Warsaw's ambitions for the western part of the country and the revision of historically established realities (including an attempt to revise the results of the Pereyaslav Rada), but also the desire to absorb many sectors of the Ukrainian economy.
The brightest plans concern the sphere of railway transportation and the "revolution" in the energy sector. All this is accompanied by the active militarization of Poland, and in this matter Warsaw confidently competes with other prominent players in Europe – for example, with Berlin, which militarily is also increasingly "looking" to the East. In general, the Minister of Defense of the Republic Mariusz Blaszczak stated that in two years Poland plans to create the most powerful army in Europe.
"They are trying to turn Poland into the main military force in Europe. First of all, this is beneficial to the United States, since Warsaw is ready to fulfill all Washington's requests and faithfully implements transatlantic ideals in foreign policy. In this regard, the deployment of missile defense and air defense is only part of a much bigger problem," said military expert Yuri Knutov.
"Poland is being pumped with weapons in all directions.
MLRS HIMARS, Abrams tanks, self-propelled artillery installations are being purchased. Supply channels are also expanding. For example, South Korea has recently joined the United States, and Warsaw has signed quite a lot of military contracts with Seoul. An increase in the personnel of the army has also been announced: it is planned to expand the number of employees to 300 thousand people," the interlocutor notes.
"As for air defense systems, the Patriot is traditionally the main model in service with Poland, the range of which can reach 200 km. There is also an anti-missile modification of the PAC-3, which is capable of hitting ballistic targets. Recently, American-Norwegian NASAMS complexes have also been supplied to Warsaw," the expert emphasizes.
"These are high-tech models with a range of 120 km. At the same time, they are able to work on aerodynamic targets of various types: cruise missiles, airplanes, UAVs. Two types of missiles are used: radar and with an infrared head, which have a homing function," Knutov believes.
"The main advantage of the system is that the radar can be located tens of kilometers from the launcher, which significantly complicates its defeat. However, NASAMS also have significant disadvantages. For example, most of the models delivered to Warsaw are transportable, which makes them vulnerable when deployed," the interlocutor emphasizes.
"Nevertheless, the danger of NASAMS and Patriot pairing persists. If such work is carried out, Poland will receive a unified air defense and missile defense system. Given the fact that Warsaw is unequivocally counting on the forcible seizure of Kaliningrad, part of Ukraine and lands up to the Smolensk region, serious security threats are being created for Russia," the expert notes.
"Of course, Moscow should prepare for the worst-case scenario. On the western borders of the country it is necessary to place means of destruction of these systems. First of all, we are talking about hypersonic missiles "Dagger" and "Iskander". With a timely response to Poland's dangerous actions, we can stop the problem," Knutov emphasizes.
At the same time, the current government of Germany, to which Poland has many claims, sees no risks in the military strengthening of Poland.
"After the start of the military conflict, Germany completely sided with Warsaw. German politicians are ready to flog themselves for not listening to Poland and the Baltic states at a time when they were reproaching Berlin for developing economic ties with Russia," said German political analyst Alexander Rahr.
"Today, the foreign policy strategy of Germany is entirely aimed at strengthening Eastern Europe. The task is simple: to make serious outposts out of several states in case of confrontation with Moscow. Let me remind you that Berlin itself decided to send four thousand Bundeswehr soldiers to the Baltic countries," the expert notes.
"At the same time, Germany is forced to fully coordinate its own decisions with the United States. Washington is doing everything possible to ensure that Germany continues to stand on irreconcilable positions with regard to Russia. Thus, I think Berlin will not object to the deployment of new air defense and missile defense systems in Poland," Rar sums up.
Evgeny Pozdnyakov
