One more radar to strengthen the system
Andrey Karneyev
Last summer the Pentagon announced its plans to create an advanced missile defense system in the Asian-Pacific region. In the next few years a chain of modern missile defense radars can be deployed from the North of Japan through its Southern islands to the Philippines. Together with the missile systems and the ships the radars will form a joint system that allows intercepting ballistic missiles.
“Without acknowledging it, the system is targeted against China. And practically nobody doubts that…[T]he USA is not prepared to acknowledge China as an equal partner and not ready to have a mutual nuclear deterrence or strategic partnership with China…”
Leon Panetta, the head of the Pentagon, announced that Japan and the US signed an agreement to deploy the second element of the American missile defense system on Japanese territory. Washington and Tokyo assured China that the missile defense system was not targeted against it. However, experts are convinced that Beijing will view with caution these steps towards deploying a new missile defense element.
Panetta believes that deploying a new early warning radar in Japan will improve the possibilities of defense against the threat of a missile strike from Chinese territory against Japanese islands as well as the continental US. The parties still have to decide on the location of the new radar.
However, according to military experts most likely the new radar will be located in the South of the country. Today US Navy ships equipped with Aegis technology perform the defense role in the region. After the new station is launched in operation, these ships will gain a significant freedom of movement. It is important for the US in the framework of the “return to Asia” concept announced by Barack Obama.
Last summer the Pentagon announced its plans to create an advanced missile defense system in the Asian-Pacific region. In the next few years a chain of modern missile defense radars can be deployed from the North of Japan through its Southern islands to the Philippines. Together with the missile systems and the ships the radars will form a joint system that allows intercepting ballistic missiles.
Well-known political scientist academician Alexey Arbatov says that it is hard to believe that North Korea’s missiles are the only target of this vast system.
“Of course, North Korea is not the only and perhaps not the main target of the system. Without acknowledging it, the system is targeted against China. And practically nobody doubts that. China is building up its nuclear arsenal, which still significantly lags behind that of the US. But China does not disclose the plans of the nuclear arsenal’s development. And the USA is not prepared to acknowledge China as an equal partner and not ready to have a mutual nuclear deterrence or strategic partnership with China, in other words all that the US acknowledged in its relationship with the USSR and now in its relationship with Russia.”
As Academician Alexey Arbatov points out, parity and mutual nuclear deterrence are not given out for free. One must win that. In its time the USSR put a lot of effort in achieving parity in the race against the US. Exactly because China claims the role of the second superpower of the XXI century, the US strives to protect its positions and not to let the growing state to take that role. As long as there is an opportunity to sustain a major strategic superiority against China, based on assault weapons as well as its missile defense system, the US will maintain its policy to deter China, paying no attention to Beijing’s concerns.
In relation to the latest events in Japanese-American military cooperation, Russia’s Foreign Ministry called upon the US to take into account the security interests of other countries while making decisions on deploying missile defense elements in Japan. Moscow believes that the US should guide its efforts in the missile defense area with the real challenges and threats and act so that no damage is done to the security interests of other members of the world community.
