US Missile Defense Complex in Poland - History

History

Since 2002, the US had been in talks with Poland and other European countries over the possibility of setting up a European base to intercept long-range missiles. According to US officials, a site similar to the US base in Alaska would help protect the US and Europe from missiles fired from the Middle East or North Africa. The Ustka-Wicko base of the Polish Army 54°33′13″N 16°37′13″E / 54.553748°N 16.620255°E / 54.553748; 16.620255 was initially mentioned as a possible site of US missile interceptors. Poland's prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said in November 2005 he wanted to open up the public debate on whether Poland should host such a base.

In February 2007 the US started formal negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic concerning construction of missile shield installations in those countries for a Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System. However in April 2007 the Washington Post reported that 57% of Poles opposed the plan.

Russia threatened to place short-range nuclear missiles on its borders with NATO if the United States refused to abandon its plans to deploy 10 interceptor missiles and a radar in Poland and the Czech Republic. In April 2007, then-President Putin warned of a new Cold War if the Americans deployed the shield in Central Europe. Putin also said that Russia was prepared to abandon its obligations under a Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 with the United States.

On July 4, 2008, Poland did not agree on the conditions set forth by the United States regarding the installation of anti-ballistic missiles on its territory.

On July 8, 2008, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that if the missile defense system was approved, "we will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods."

On August 14, 2008, shortly after the 2008 South Ossetia war, the United States and Poland announced a deal to implement the missile defense system in Polish territory, with a tracking system placed in the Czech Republic. The Russians responded by saying such action "cannot go unpunished." "The fact that this was signed in a period of very difficult crisis in the relations between Russia and the United States over the situation in Georgia shows that, of course, the missile defense system will be deployed not against Iran but against the strategic potential of Russia," Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's NATO envoy, said.

A high-ranking Russian military officer had warned Poland that it was exposing itself to attack by accepting a U.S. missile interceptor base on its soil. The deputy chief of staff of Russia's armed forces Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn has warned Poland that, "by deploying (the system), it is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent".

On August 20, 2008, the "Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Poland Concerning the Deployment of Ground-Based Ballistic Missile Defense Interceptors in the Territory of the Republic of Poland" was signed in Warsaw by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski

On November 5, during President Dmitry Medvedev's first state of the nation speech he stated that Russia would deploy short-range Iskander missiles to Russia's western enclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania "to neutralize, if necessary, a missile defense system." "From what we have seen in recent years — the creation of a missile defense system, the encirclement of Russia with military bases, the relentless expansion of NATO — we have gotten the clear impression that they are testing our strength," he said.

On November 8, an aide to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama denied a claim made by Polish President Lech Kaczyński's office that a pledge had been made to go ahead with the missile defense system during a phone conversation between the two men. "His position is as it was throughout the campaign, that he supports deploying a missile defence system when the technology is proved to be workable," the aid said, but "no commitment" has been made.

On November 14, French President Nicolas Sarkozy stated that plans for a U.S. missile shield in Central Europe were misguided, and wouldn't make the continent a safer place. "Deployment of a missile defense system would bring nothing to security ... it would complicate things, and would make them move backward," he said at a summit. He also warned Russian President Dmitry Medvedev against upping tensions by deploying missiles in Kaliningrad in response to the U.S. planned missile defense system.

On April 5, 2009, President Obama, during his speech in Prague, declared: "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven." President Obama continued to express conditional support for the program and sought to isolate it from U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control talks.

On September 17, 2009, The White House issued a statement saying that the US "no longer planned to move forward" with the project. According to President Obama, new intelligence had shown Iran was pursuing short-range and medium-range missile development, rather than long-range, necessitating a shift in strategy. The outlines of a reformulated, scaled-down project began to emerge in October, 2009.

After the GBI cancellation, Vicepresident Joe Biden visited Poland in 2009 to "mend relations" by announcing the SM-3 deployment plan (see two sections below for details of the new plan). Polish sources complained that the new plan no long gave Poland an exclusive role (because an SM-3 site was also planned for Romania).

In 2010 cables leaked by Wikileaks showed that Polish diplomats felt more threatened by Russia than by Iran. The (leaked) responses from Pentagon show that Alexander Vershbow sought to assuage that the missile shield, including the SM-3 alternative, was adaptable to "hypothetical" threats.

In March 2013 Polish Deputy Minister of Defense Robert Kupiecki announced that Poland intends to build its own missile defense within NATO, complementing the US deployment. Their tentative budged for the next decade is "$10 billion for the modernization of air defense, where half of this sum is dedicated to lower-tier missile defense."