US President Barack Obama has said the US is to take a new approach to missile defence, employing a system that would better address threats from Iran.
Highlighting advances in missile defence technology ‘particularly with regard to land and sea based interceptors and sensors that support them,’ Mr Obama said the new approach would use proven and cost effective technologies.
Mr Obama also told US NATO allies that the adjusted US missile defense system in Europe would make them safer.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the United States would deploy Aegis ships equipped with interceptors to defend European allies and US forces against more immediate threats as part of a revamped missile shield program.
Mr Gates said land-based defense systems would be fielded in a second phase starting in about 2015.
‘We now have the opportunity to deploy new sensors and interceptors in northern and southern Europe that near term can provide missile defence coverage against more immediate threats from Iran or others,’ Gates told a press conference.
‘Consultations have begun with allies, staring with Poland and the Czech Republic, about hosting a land-based version of the SM-3 and other components of the system,’ Mr Gates said.
‘The second phase about 2015 will involve fielding upgraded land based SM-3s about hosting a land based version and other components of the system.’
Earlier, the Czech government was informed that Washington was backing away from a plan to build a missile defence radar site there, Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer said.
'US President Barack Obama called me shortly after midnight to tell me his government was giving up its intention to build a radar base on Czech soil,' Mr Fischer said.
'The Czech Republic has acknowledged this decision,' he added.
In a report, the Wall Street Journal said the decision is based on a US 'determination that Iran's long-range missile program has not progressed as rapidly as previously estimated'.
The Bush administration had pushed aggressively to begin construction of the Eastern European system before leaving office in January, the report said.
Former US president George W Bush's administration proposed the system to counter its perceived threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon that could be carried by its increasingly sophisticated missiles.
Russia was a staunch opponent of the system, which it has seen as a threat to its own security.
