Modern US missile defense began to be created in 2002, when Washington unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. This document was signed by the USSR and the USA in 1972.
Richard Pearl, chairman of the Defense Policy Council at the US Department of Defense, later said: “The treaty only made sense in the context of the Cold War, when, in an atmosphere of fear, you needed to insure yourself against the lure of the cold war. The enemy would strike first under the cover of a missile shield.”
Moscow responded by saying that withdrawing from the agreement was a blow to international security. Therefore, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that this decision “is aimed at the entire international community, as the vast majority of states are in favor of maintaining the ABM agreement.”
Since then, the United States has deployed a global missile defense system around the world consisting of mobile and fixed missile defense systems. This system is partly located in the United States itself (Alaska and California), where 44 silo-based interceptors are installed. In the form of Patriot mobile complexes, the American missile defense system is also deployed in Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Japan, Turkey and Israel. There are AN / TPY-2 radars in the Marshall Islands. In Europe, a naval component of the American missile defense system was created, consisting of the Aegis system and SM-3 interceptors, as well as several destroyers. Aegis Ashore land systems are also located in Romania and Poland.
At the same time, the reliability of US missile defense raised questions in the American expert community. So, in 2017, after testing the Sarmat first-stage engine, an article was published in the American magazine The National Interest questioning the capabilities of the missile defense system.
“We do not yet have effective means to combat multi-unit intercontinental ballistic missiles. Such missiles can be fought only by interception in the active sector before the separation of the warheads. After that, the complexity of the missile defense system increases many times over, and the probability of repelling an attack decreases proportionally. “This requires a sharp increase in the number of interceptors, which will have the most serious impact on the defense budget,” he said.
According to open sources, the number of interceptors in the United States has not increased since 2017.
After the Sarmat missile launch on April 20, Michael Colriser, a professor at Columbia University’s Center for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, wrote an article for Military Watch Magazine that pointed to the shortcomings of US missile defense.
“The task of fighting multiple warheads was not solved by the missile defense system. [США]. With the help of anti-missiles and other systems, we can conduct an effective fight against the simplest missiles, but even against such a system as the Devil (the R-36M Voyevoda missile has been in service since 1975, multiple warheads consist of 10 warheads , – “Gazeta. Note Ru), we do not have guaranteed solutions. The number of anti-missile also cannot be considered sufficient today, ”says Kolriser.
Major General Alexander Vladimirov, Head of the College of Military Experts, also agrees with this view.
“American missile defense is a myth invented by the Pentagon. Of course there is, but the possibilities of US missile defense are greatly exaggerated. Especially against Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles. Although the first intercontinental ballistic missiles were not available, the Pentagon initially announced their development as a response to potential threats from Iran and North Korea, Vladimirov told socialbites.ca.
In turn, the military expert, reserve colonel Vladimir Popov noted that the Sarmat qualitatively differs from previous missiles in the ability to perform active maneuvers on the flight path, which makes it difficult for anti-missile missiles to hit it even before the warheads are deployed.
“Russia is constantly working on the problem of overcoming missile defense. It was necessary to create such complexes that would override any interception systems in all areas of flight. And this was achieved by Russian scientists and designers. Created a rocket capable of deep and multiple maneuvers during flight. This allows either to bypass possible zones of interference by anti-missiles, or to reduce as much as possible the time spent in these zones, ”added Popov.
Source: Gazeta
