US Deploys Missile Destroying Warships; Russia Responds
Quote:
On Jan. 31, a United States guided missile destroyer called the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) departed Norfolk Naval Base bound for Rota, Spain. Cruising at 20 knots, this would be an eight-day voyage, putting the Cook in port in Spain right about now.
Quote:
It's the first of four of America's "DDGs" to be outfitted with a new version of the Aegis anti-aircraft defense system, specially designed to shoot down ballistic missiles. And it represents the vanguard of America's new Europe-based Ballistic Missile Defense -- a $22 billion, decades-long project to defend against missile strikes from a nuclear-armed Iran.
Quote:
In the Russian Duma, foreign affairs committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov has called Aegis a "fake" defensive system. At the Foreign Ministry, diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov has threatened "withdrawal from the [START nuclear arms reduction] treaty" unless Aegis BMD is abandoned.
For those who of you who don't know what the START nuclear arms reduction treaty is:
Quote:
START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was a bilateral treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 December 1994.[1] The treaty barred its signatories from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads atop a total of 1,600 ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and bombers. START negotiated the largest and most complex arms control treaty in history, and its final implementation in late 2001 resulted in the removal of about 80 percent of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existence.
