New US missiles will destroy our pact, says Russia
By Carey Schofield in Moscow and Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent
NATO will discuss American plans for new missile defences today as Russia
said it would refuse to destroy thousands of nuclear warheads if the system
went ahead.George W Bush is committed to pushing ahead with the national
missile defence system to protect America from attack by rogue states such as
Iraq, Iran and North Korea. But General Vladimir Yakovlev, head of Russia's
strategic rocket forces, said that this would scupper treaties agreeing to
the destruction of warheads.The 1972 ABM treaty, which Washington wants to
amend, governs the conditions under which America and the former Soviet Union
can develop and deploy anti-ballistic missile systems. The current treaty
would limit American deployment to its launch pad at Grand Forks, North
Dakota, preventing the kind of nationwide protection envisaged under the new
plans.The ABM treaty led to the Start treaties. The current treaty, Start II,
would halve American and Russian nuclear arsenals to 3,000 or 3,500 warheads
each. President Putin has suggested that under Start III both sides should
reduce their nuclear arsenals to 1,500 each.But Gen Yakovlev said that Russia
was not prepared to soften its approach to allow the national missile defence
system to go ahead. Deploying it would galvanise Russians to create "new
weapons" even deadlier than nuclear missiles. He said: "You cannot stop the
human mind. Unfortunately, men will always be driven to create new weapons.
We expend our ingenuity inventing new systems and then have to work to find
ways to eliminate them."President Reagan's vaunted Star Wars system was
abandoned largely because it was recognised as too expensive to protect every
American city. America fell back on the Cold War view that the mutually
assured destruction (Mad) that would occur if either side fired one of its
missiles was a sufficient deterrent.But it had second thoughts when the Cold
War ended and rogue nuclear threats emerged. Protecting cities against the
much smaller threat would not be as difficult or expensive.The 1999 National
Missile Defence Act, signed by President Clinton, committed America to
deploying the �50 billion system "as soon as technologically possible". It is
expected to involve space and ground-based sensors to provide early warning;
ground-based radar to identify and track incoming missiles; ground-based
interceptors to destroy enemy warheads; and a battle command, control and
communications system. Despite American assurances that it is intended to
protect America from countries such as North Korea and Iraq, the Russians
fear that its ultimate aim is to put them at a disadvantage. Gen Yakovlev
said that if it did not go ahead and there was agreement on Start III, Moscow
was prepared to get rid of all its intercontinental ballistic missiles, with
the exception of 1,500 new Topol Ms, which have a range of 6,200 miles. It
was also willing to allow a resumption of the talks between Russian and
American nuclear specialists that broke up when Nato attacked Yugoslavia last
year. Gen Yakovlev said he believed that these expert discussions were the
best way of pushing forward the Start process. "Only the professionals who
handle these weapons understand how dangerous they really are."
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