Norway Sees Russian Role for NATO’s Ballistic Missile Defense

Apr. 12, 2012 By Gerard O’Dwyer – Defense News

Helsinki — Norway is prepared to support establishment of NATO’s new missile defense system in Europe but also is ready to help build trust between NATO and a Russian government opposed to the project, according to Norway’s New Defense Plan (NDP) white paper.

The full content in the NDP is to be debated by the Storting (Parliament) later this spring.

“From a Norwegian perspective, the indivisibility and importance of security has been emphasized in connection with the deployment of a missile defense. Norway has further emphasized that the system is not aimed at Russia and that it must work to include Russia as far as possible,” the NDP states.

According to the NDP, Norway would initially assign specialized staff to the NATO project to assist operational functions and the actual decision-making process. In addition, Norway is ready to support intelligence aspects of the project while considering further financial and other resource contributions that may arise as the system develops.

Norway robustly supported a decision by NATO’s leadership, taken at its 2010 summit meeting in Lisbon, to develop a ballistic missile defense (BMD) capability to bolster collective defense. Under this plan, the scope of the current active layered theater ballistic missile defense program’s command, control and communication capabilities are to be expanded beyond force protection to include NATO populations and territories in Europe.

NATO is working to develop a BMD architecture influenced by the United States’ European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) and other contributions from member countries such as Norway.

The fundamental plan, the pace of which Norway hopes to accelerate, would locate a missile shield in Romania, Turkey or Bulgaria against medium-range missiles. This is set to be integrated into a broader system linked to existing European missile defense platforms to establish a BMD shield covering the entire NATO area.

The NDP describes the planned NATO BMD shield as a vital component to protect Europe against the growing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile threats increasingly located outside Europe.

Furthermore, the NDP underlines the urgent need for the BMD against a backdrop of the U.S.’s reduced defense role in Europe.

The Norwegian government said a declaration of interim operational capacity for the system likely will be announced at the NATO summit in Chicago in May. To this end, Norway hopes to advance its shared bridge-building and trust program with Russia to reassure Moscow that the NATO BMD would not pose a threat to Russia’s national security, the NDP states.