BRUSSELS, April 25 (Itar-Tass) — Plans regarding the antiballistic missile system in Europe remain the major unresolved issue marring relations between NATO and Russia, General Nikolai Makarov, the Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces said here Wednesday.
“The phased adaptive approach that is being implemented in Europe today may upset the balance in the field of security by 2017 or 2018,” he said.
He indicated that the most recent computerized war game simulation conducted by Russian and NATO experts showed the two sides stand to gain the best possible results in the field of antimissile missile defenses if they create a united missile defense system.
“Quite a big amount of time was spent today to analyze the results of the war games simulation held in Germany at the end of March,” Gen Makarov said. “The simulation had three scenarios, the first imitating the action of two fully independent systems, the second scenario presupposing a situation where the sides would have independent combat control and firepower and a united block of information elements, and the third scenario envisioning a fully integrated missile defense system.”
“All the parties involved in the simulation confirmed that the third scenario showed the best results,” he said.
Gen Makarov pointed out the fact that Russia had managed to convince the NATO partners to hold the simulation on the basis of its proposals.
“In the first place, it was Europe that was chosen as a theater of operations, not a hypothetical third country,” he said. “Secondly, all the parameters of the antimissile missile systems were had the closest possible resemblance to the actually existing ones.”
“A big number of NATO countries proposed to organize similar war game simulations on their territories,” Gen Makarov said.