GENEVA, March 28. /TASS/. US ground-based radars that constitute part of the country’s stationary nuclear missile early warning system can detect all possible flight trajectories of Russian ballistic missiles towards the United States, Deputy Head of Russia’s General Staff Main Operations Department Lieutenant-General Viktor Poznikhir said on Tuesday.

The Russian military expert made this statement at a joint Russia-China briefing on anti-ballistic missile defense at a Geneva-hosted disarmament conference.
"Stationary radars of the US ballistic missile early warning system detect all the potential flight trajectories of Russian ballistic missiles in the direction of the United States. The control boundary of the US radar stations covers actually the entire territory of Russia. These stations are capable of tracking the flight of warheads of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles and giving target acquisition data to the radar stations of anti-missile complexes," the general said.

According to the Russian general, the use of a sea-based mobile radar near Alaska, radar stations in Romania and Poland, and also information systems of ABM warships considerably increases the promptness and the accuracy of target acquisition data on Russian ICBMs and sea-launched ballistic missiles and, therefore, the capabilities of intercepting them with anti-missiles.

"The information possibilities of the US ABM system are expected to grow as a result of the build-up of the low-orbit space system of detecting and tracking ballistic missiles. The data transmittance directly from a space vehicle to an anti-missile will allow the US ABM system to reach a qualitatively new level," Poznikhir stressed.

"Therefore, the information and reconnaissance means of the US ABM system at present provide for both detecting the launch of Russian ballistic missiles, tracking them in the flight trajectory and giving target acquisition to the ABM firepower complexes for intercepting the warheads of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles," the Russian general expalined.

Anti-missile dialogue and security issues 

Russia is calling on the United States for an equitable and constructive dialogue on anti-missile issues. 

"We are calling for an equitable and constructive dialogue on anti-missile issues aimed at searching for the solutions that take into account the interests of all the parties concerned," the expert said.

Russia "is forced to take adequate countermeasures aimed at preventing the existing possible damage to the security of the state as a result of the further build-up of the US ABM capabilities," he noted.

Russia proposed a joint development of the ABM architecture for Europe, he added.

"However, all our initiatives were rejected," he said.

As the Russian military expert said, "in our estimates, the number of ABM anti-missiles will reach over 1,000 in 2022 and eventually exceed the number of warheads deployed on Russian ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] and SLBMs [submarine-launched ballistic missiles]."

Such a number of ABM weapons "poses a serious threat to the Russian containment potential, especially considering the constant work on modernizing ABM firepower complexes," he said.

A threat to global security 

The United States’ missile defense shield systematically ruins current international security, Poznikhir has stressed: 

"The deployment of the missile defense systematically ruins the current system of international security. As it builds up missile defense capabilities, the United States hopes to gain strategic advantage by downgrading the deterrence potentials of Russia and China. This may cause serious effects in the field of security." 

"Firstly, the existence of missile defense systems lowers the threshold of using nuclear weapons, which creates the delusion strategic offensive weapons might be used with impunity under the missile defense umbrella. Secondly, the missile defense upsets the current balance of deterrence forces, thereby jeopardizing the implementation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 2010 and the Intermediate Nuclear Force [INF] treaty of 1987. Thirdly, the emerging missile defense system poses a threat to the safety of the international space activity and hinders the conclusion of agreements on the non-deployment of weapons in space," Poznikhir said.

Also, he said that the missile system was a factor for building up missile forces around the world and provoked another arms race.