MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. The problem of ballistic missile defense is becoming increasingly vital for international security as elements of a US missile shield have already been deployed in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, Chief of the Russian General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov said at the Moscow Conference on International Security on Wednesday.
"Today components of the US missile shield have already been deployed in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Efforts continue to build them up by creating a land-based missile shield system in Poland and assigning the ballistic missile defense capability to NATO and Japanese warships," he said.
Russia has repeatedly raised the issue of the inadmissibility of deploying US global missile shield capabilities near the Russian borders as this system is a substantial destabilizing factor, the military chief stressed.
"The need to reduce the negative effect of the US missile shield on the military security of the Russian Federation required efforts to develop capabilities for neutralizing this threat," Gerasimov said.
The strike potential of the global missile shield cannot be ignored either, the chief of the Russian General Staff said.
Ballistic missile defense systems in Europe
MK-41 multi-mission launchers that make part of land-based Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense systems deployed in Romania and eventually to be stationed in Poland can be used for launching a seaborne Tomahawk cruise missile with an operating range of up to 2,400 km, the chief of the Russian General Staff stressed.
"Considering the available technological potential created in the period of the INF [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty, Washington has started creating intermediate-range missiles that can be deployed in Europe and Asia. If they are deployed in Europe, the United States will create a threat to facilities on Russian territory," the chief of the Russian General Staff warned.