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The Military United States Politics Technology

Russia To Help NATO Build Anti-Missile Network 175

Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that Russia has agreed to cooperate with NATO on erecting a US-planned anti-missile network in Europe protecting the continent against possible ballistic missile attacks from Iran or elsewhere. The anti-missile coverage would be anchored by a US land- and sea-based deployment, reconfigured by Obama from earlier plans devised under the Bush administration. The new idea would be to link individual national missile defenses into the US network and place them all under a NATO command and control center with authority to respond to an attack. 'We see Russia as a partner, not an adversary,' says President Obama, hailing the NATO-Russian accord. President Dmitri Medvedev warned that Russia's cooperation must be 'a full-fledged strategic partnership between Russia and NATO' and not just a nod in Moscow's direction to spare Russian feelings while Europe tends to its own defenses in tandem with the United States."
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Russia To Help NATO Build Anti-Missile Network

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  • A report [theaustralian.com.au] by an Australian news organization notes, "Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed yesterday to involve technicians in development plans, but did not make a commitment if it became operational and warned that Russia might decide against joining the US-led effort if it were not treated as an equal partner." Though Russia is assisting NATO, Russia is not necessarily committing to using the system.

    That response by Russia should have raised suspicions about the Kremlin's actually sabotaging the des

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      "If the Kremlin were a true supporter of NATO, why would the Russian "president" still present Russia as an adversary of the West?"

      Precisely, the Kremlin believes that they need a credible foreign threat to keep themselves in power. Truly cooperating with the West would remove that and they'd be left with defending their regime using the same yardsticks as democratic regimes.

      • They could like, try to claim that the separatist Chechens have nukes

        • There's an old urban legend - dating back to 90s - that Chechens have "backpack nukes" which they have already smuggled into large Russian citizens and wired up. Presumably when they feel things really are bad, they'll push the red button. So nothing new there.

          In practice, given the modus operandi of Russian government in the Chechen wars, a more likely approach would be to give the Islamists nukes for real.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Locutus ( 9039 )
      and because they want to know how it works and make sure the US system is connected so when they send a worm down the line, it takes everyone out of the loop. Putin still scares me and seems like he's too much like a James Bond villain than anyone out to do his people any good.

      LoB
    • by khallow ( 566160 )

      Worse, "President" Medvedev has accused the Europeans of using the shield to neutralize Russian nuclear missiles. If the Kremlin were a true supporter of NATO, why would the Russian "president" still present Russia as an adversary of the West?

      Why not? They benefit from having it both ways. By contributing to the system, they gain access to valuable technology. And by being very standoffish about it, they'll be in a position to leverage bribes and other income off of even a basic working missile defense system.

    • That response by Russia should have raised suspicions about the Kremlin's actually sabotaging the design of the missile system. After all, if the Kremlin is not committed to using the system, why would the Kremlin bother to ensure that the system can actually work?

      Obviously Russia would welcome the opportunity to study state of the art western missile defense systems without resorting to the fickle world of spies and informants. What better way to determine the capabilities of the system, and thus its weak

      • by sznupi ( 719324 )

        Russia is the only place with fully operational nuclear missile defense technology...

  • Finally Russia is getting this capitalism thing. They just need to step it up.
    1. find a person who likely will go insane with power
    2. fly that person to the US and train them
    3. after training, send them back with $$$
    4. help them win a coup
    5. send in reporters to scare up the world (and profit from the ad revenue)
    6. wait for fear to brew
    7. piss them off
    8. claim they're insane to the world and everyone is at risk
    9. send troups, bombs, etc and blow shit up
    10. profit profit profit

    Eventually you'll own the land, thin your own herd, scare Eu

  • Well (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ShooterNeo ( 555040 ) on Sunday November 21, 2010 @09:09AM (#34297758)

    I hope the designers of this system know what they are doing. A very obvious design goal would be to make it so that a computer virus loaded in one country couldn't shut down the ballistic missile defenses of another. After all, if one country writes most of the software they could easily insert back doors to allow them to shut down any node of the system at will.

    Heck, this system will uses lots of RF antennas for input (such as the tracking radars)...a good back door could be triggered remotely, so long as you were running the same firmware revision as before. So even if you cut the cables linking the control centers together, one country could still remotely disable the defenses of another.

    • Heck, this system will uses lots of RF antennas for input (such as the tracking radars)...a good back door could be triggered remotely, so long as you were running the same firmware revision as before. So even if you cut the cables linking the control centers together, one country could still remotely disable the defenses of another.

      Joachim: "Our shields are dropping!"

      Kahn: "Hit the override. The override!"

  • Cyber Attacks? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by iinventstuff ( 1888700 ) on Sunday November 21, 2010 @09:12AM (#34297780)
    So, all the individual nations' missile defense systems will now be linked into a single network? Have these leaders read the news about 'cyber' warfare and how it's starting to pick up? It would seem that creating an electronic pathway from other nations should raise concern for the security of one's own defenses. Prior to a physical attack, it would be convenient to knock out the missile defenses of your adversary and this network now provides that conduit...
  • typo in tfa (Score:2, Funny)

    by bl8n8r ( 649187 )
    they spelled China as 'elsewhere'.
  • If this will be as useful as the international space station.

  • You push button and missile goes correctly. If some missile don't go correctly you shoot more missile.
  • What a load (Score:5, Insightful)

    by koan ( 80826 ) on Sunday November 21, 2010 @11:47AM (#34298658)

    There are no missile threats from Iran or any where else, this is military contractors making deals and the rest of the humans being to stupid to care or notice.

  • Because since they cut the old program Orbital Sciences has had to lay off something like a third of its employees, and the layoffs continue just about every week.

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