MOSCOW, September 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and the United States could take up the issue of deploying a joint missile defense system in Europe if Iran develops long-range ballistic missiles, a former top Russian general said on Monday.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Thursday that Washington would not deploy a radar system in the Czech Republic and a missile base in Poland due to a re-assessment of the threat from Iran. Moscow fiercely opposed the Europe-based missile defense plans as a national security threat.
"Russia and the U.S. could jointly turn to this topic again in the future if Iran gets such a weapon (long-range ballistic missile), but this won't happen until at least 2015," said Col. Gen. Viktor Yesin (Ret.), who was chief of staff of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces in 1991-1993.
Yesin said the non-strategic missile defense program could not guarantee security from ballistic missiles traveling at 7 km/s (4 mi/sec). He said the short- and medium-range missiles that Iran now possesses have a speed of no more than 4.5 km/sec and could be effectively destroyed by a non-strategic missile system.
According to Yesin, should a long-range ballistic missile threaten Russia, it could use its Gabalin missile defense program it has developed with Azerbaijan, or the Armavir radar station in Russia's south, which will be completed by October-November. Russia may also use its S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.
The United States has stationary strategic missile defense systems deployed at two sites, in Alaska and California, while Russia has one based near Moscow.
