Rogozin Proposes State Body on Aerospace Defenses

MOSCOW, January 27 (RIA Novosti)

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on Friday proposed setting up a government body responsible for consolidating efforts aimed at the creation of an effective aerospace defense network in the country.

“We need to set up some sort of a systemic integrator under the Military Industrial Commission, which could bring together the work of our designers and scientists and the demands of the aerospace defense forces,” Rogozin said during a visit to the Almaz-Antey company.

Rogozin said the production of new weaponry for aerospace defenses was currently in a poor state, which could prevent Russia from protecting itself effectively against potential attacks.

Federal authorities and defense industry should work closely together to ensure the provision of advanced weaponry for the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces, he said.

Moscow believes that the greatest potential threat Russia may be facing in the next decade is the U.S.-backed European missile shield being created near its borders.

Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on the so-called Euro missile shield during the Russia-NATO Council summit in Lisbon in November 2010. NATO insists there should be two independent systems that exchange information, while Russia favors a joint system with full-scale interoperability.

Talks with the NATO on the subject have reached a deadlock over Moscow’s concerns that the deployment of U.S. missile defense systems in Europe would be a security threat.

Russia says it would be logical and efficient to create a network of "sector" defenses where each member state or group of states would assume responsibility for intercepting and destroying ballistic missiles over assigned territory.

Rogozin said on Friday that Russia still hoped to continue joint missile defense dialogue with NATO.

“We understand perfectly well that if our opponents had political goodwill and simply common sense, we could have joined our efforts in creating a multilayered, advanced and reliable aerospace defense network protecting the whole European continent,” he said.