Russia Jittery As US Plans To Test Interceptor Missile SM-3 Next Year

US media reports citing Pentagon officials stated that the US military is planning to test the SM-3 Block IIA interceptor missile by 2020. The interceptor missiles, if successful poses a major security risk to Russia which has got the Kremlin anxious.

Russia is concerned over reports about Washington’s plans to test the SM-3 Block IIA interceptor missile against intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The ministry notes that US media reports citing anonymous Pentagon representatives said that the US military planned to test this interceptor missile in 2020.

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“These plans cannot but concern us, the reports on the planned tests of SM-3 Block IIA to intercept ICBM once again confirm that Washington’s statement that the US global missile defense system is ‘not directed’ against Russia is cynical,” the statement said.

For many years, Washington has assured Moscow that its missile defense system does not threaten Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces, the ministry said. At the 2012 Moscow Security Conference the US tried to provide assurances that the estimates of Russian specialists, showing that these US countermissiles can strike Russia’s strategic nuclear weapons, thus lowering the effectiveness of its strategic deterrence, were erroneous.

Now the Foreign Ministry notes that “the threat is becoming a reality.” “Certainly, Russia will be forced to take this into account and take measures, including technical ones.”

Moscow is again calling on Washington to think and start jointly searching for a solution to the accrued problems in international security sphere.

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