It is designed to detect, track and intercept ballistic missiles in flight. A new American missile defense base was officially inaugurated in Poland on Wednesday. Now operational, it is ready to “contribute to the defense of the Alliance” by strengthening “NATO’s anti-missile shield”, indicates the Atlantic Alliance. Here’s what you need to know about this new base.
Why a new American anti-missile base in Europe?
Located near the town of Redzikowo, Pomerania, this base belongs to the US Navy, reports to USEUCOM, the main command of American forces in Europe, but is integrated into the NATO command structure. Equipped with an Aegis anti-missile system, it is an additional piece within the American anti-missile shield in Europe, which Washington began to put in place fifteen years ago, and intended to officially protect against ballistic missile threats emanating from outside the Euro-Atlantic zone, particularly Iran. The project of this base was launched under the presidency of President George W. Bush. After falling behind schedule, its construction began in 2016 and was completed in 2023.
In addition to this new base in Poland, the shield includes another site operational since 2016 in Deveselu in Romania, four US Navy destroyers based in Rota (Spain) and an early warning radar deployed in Kurecik (Turkey). Around 200 soldiers are stationed at the two interception sites in Poland and Romania.
What type of threats should this base protect Europe against?
If the project dates back to well before the war in Ukraine, the inauguration of this base takes on a whole new dimension with the rise of the Russian threat. “Through the conflicts in Ukraine or the Middle East, we can see how important air defense and missile defense are,” stressed Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. This base is intended to defend “all populations, territories and forces of the European countries of the Alliance against the growing threat posed by ballistic missiles” at short (1,000-3,000 km) and medium (3,000-5,500 km) range. .
Contacted by 20 MinutesJean de Gliniasty, research director at Iris (Institute of International and Strategic Relations)specialist in Russian issues, and former ambassador to Moscow (2009-2013), explains that it was “in order not to upset the Russians that we said in 2008 that this system would be against the rogue states, but even if it can also be used against Iran, it was against the Russians that it was installed, and this is even more true now. It is a decision which is part of the serious dispute that the Russians have with the West. »
If NATO assures that this base has a purely defensive vocation, the specialist adds that the question of deterrence is also at stake. The Russians were thus “particularly sensitive to the fact that this defense system risks calling into question the entire the architecture of their deterrence, in particular their second-strike capability, to which they attach particular importance. » The strategy of mutually assured destruction, also called balance of terror, is a strategy according to which if one party launches an attack, the destruction of both parties is assured. “This is something that Westerners play with caution,” continues the specialist, because by developing a defense system that is too advanced, “it destabilizes this balance of terror. »
Is Europe dependent on the United States for its anti-missile defense?
Europe lacks military personnel and its defense capabilities remain insufficient, even if its spending has increased since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)a British think tank, published on November 8. The main European armed forces “continue to rely on the United States to varying degrees in all military domains,” deplored this group of experts. While he emphasizes that production in certain sectors, “notably air defense and artillery, has increased considerably since 2022”, he points out that “it is in the field of defense against ballistic missiles that Europe remains the more heavily dependent on the United States. »
It is in this context that the European Sky Shield Initiative (Essi) project was launched by Germany in August 2022. “It now encompasses 22 nations” and “its scale certainly testifies to the recognized scale of the problem” continues the IISS. France and Italy, however, have not joined this program, regretting that the Essi favors certain non-European systems such as the American Patriot and the American-Israeli Arrow-3, while these two countries have a ground defense system -medium range air, the SAMP/T Mamba.
A new version, the SAMP/T NG (new generation), was presented a few weeks ago. France must order eight by 2030, and will have 12 operational systems in 2035. Italy has ordered ten. Equipped with the new Aster 30 B1NT missiles, these systems are capable of intercepting medium-range ballistic missiles, as well as so-called hypersonic missiles, flying at more than Mach 5 (6,000 km/h).
Can this base be called into question with the election of Donald Trump?
This inauguration comes at a time when Warsaw and its allies in the region are preparing for the presidency of Donald Trump, who has expressed reluctance about maintaining American military aid to Ukraine. He also threatened to disengage from Europe. The United States Ambassador to Poland, Mark Brzezinski, however, expressed his “confidence in the continuation of this close partnership between our two nations”.
For Jean de Gliniasty, “Trump likes the Poles, and he also likes American equipment,” so, “very clearly, he will not go back on it. » Especially since this system can “also interest the United States” by potentially intercepting the missiles “at the start of their course before they reach the stratosphere to fall back on their target. »
In the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, the military presence of the United States in Europe crossed the symbolic threshold of 100,000 soldiersthe bulk of the contingent being located in Germany. Poland saw a massive arrival of around 6,000 American soldiers on its territory, to reach a total of 10,000 soldiers. Around 2,500 soldiers are also now distributed between Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, while around 1,500 men are positioned in Slovakia.
Our file on the war in Ukraine
How did Moscow react to the inauguration of this new structure?
The deployment in Europe of this American anti-missile shield has always provoked hostile reactions from Russia, which sees it as a danger for its own security. Moscow protested again on Wednesday against the presence of this new base, 230 km from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. “This is an advance of American military infrastructure in Europe towards our borders” and “this will lead to the taking of appropriate measures to ensure parity,” warned Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov.
Source: www.20minutes.fr
