Russia’s radar station in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad will monitor missile launches from the North Atlantic, as well as the future European missile defense system, the Aerospace Defense Forces chief said on Friday.
“We will be able to control the entire European continent and the Atlantic, including the European missile defense system,” Lt. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko said.
The radar station is ready to go into operation as part of the national missile early warning attack system, he said.
In addition, Iskander tactical missiles will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region “in the near future,” the general said.
Russia’s air defense system will have the capability to intercept any type of missiles, any targets at any speed, including hypersonic ones, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Tuesday.
The new system, comprising air defense, missile defense, missile early warning attack and space control systems, should be up and running by December 1.
Ostapenko’s remarks come after President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that Russia would move “advanced offensive weapon systems” to its European borders in response to a planned U.S.-backed NATO missile shield if talks on the project fail.
Moscow is seeking written, legally binding guarantees that the shield will not be directed against it. Washington, however, has refused to put its verbal assurances in writing.
Washington responded by saying it would not alter its plans for a European missile defense project, despite increasingly tough rhetoric from Moscow.