The US anti-missile “new approach” is formalized

(BRUSSELS2) The American president has just officially confirmed this. The United States has adopted anew approach" in terms of anti-missile shields. As several concrete signs suggested (read "mass has been said"), it is indeed first and foremost the abandonment of the anti-missile shield as the Bush administration had designed it, with establishment in Poland and the Czech Republic. But not the total abandonment of anti-missile technology. On the contrary, it is a question, as Obama explains, of reacting more effectively to the evolution of threats. " The Iranian threat is greater than expected in short and medium range missiles, but it has advanced more slowly (...) on missiles ". Concretely, "in the short term, the Iranian threat targets (especially) the allies and partners of the United States, as well as the personnel deployed in the Middle East or in Europe". He thus announces a new timetable which will include 4 phases, spread out between 2011 and 2020 and will be based above all on the deployment of missile interceptors, mobile, on sea as on land, based on improved versions of the "Standard Missile-3" (SM-3), and a range of sensors in Europe. The first phase will be operational from 2011, with deployment at sea of ​​the Aegis weapons system, Sam-3 Block IA interceptors and a transportable maritime radar surveillance system (AN/TPY2) will thus be put in place. The fourth and final phase will take place, in 2020, with the deployment of Sam-3 Block II-B interceptors, if the tests are conclusive. (read the White House statement).