Moscow's proposal of joint use of the Gabala radar in Azerbaijan and a radar under construction in Armavir, Krasnodar Territory, are quite reasonable. However, it is doubtful whether it will satisfy the Bush administration.
This opinion was expressed in an interview with Itar-Tass on Monday by Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Theodore Postol, a recognized expert in the air defense sphere. According to the professor, the proposal is superb: it has sense. However, it cannot satisfy the Bush administration in implementing the set tasks. The Bush administration wants to build up a definite potential in the air defense sphere even now, he added.
Postol had difficulty in stating what could serve as a compromise. According to the professor, he received information that the Russian side is worried over the prospect that the US would deploy, under the global air defense system, space-based interceptor missiles.
True, according to his own admission, the specialist does not believe that space-based interceptors will be of any value: perhaps they could destroy satellites of a possible enemy.
The professor expressed his opinion that the Bush administration would not shoulder obligations in this sphere. On the other hand, the US Congress has refused up to now to finance the administration's plans to deploy interceptor missiles in outer space, he continued.
Nevertheless, Postol is worried over the prospect of a revival of a "star war" programme. This will not be of any benefit to anyone, either to the Russians or the Americans, he said. The two countries will suffer, he went on to say, if the US begins a space arms drive. This is not only money going down the drain but is just dangerous, the professor warned.
Postol is convinced that an anti-missile system is "unviable" in the military sense. He noted that American officials claimed that anti-missile defense would deprive rogue countries of a chance to threaten the United States with a nuclear attack or to blackmail the US.
He contended that there is no hope that this task would be fulfilled, taking into account limited technical possibilities of anti-missile defense systems.