AssA-Irada,
19, September 2007
The director of the Pentagon's missile-defense program has said the radar station in Azerbaijan, despite some advantages, is incapable of replacing a tracking radar that the United States had proposed basing in the Czech Republic.

He was commenting on a visit by technical experts from the United States to inspect Soviet-era early-warning radar equipment in Azerbaijan leased by Russia.

Lieutenant General Henry Obering, has pressed the Kremlin to drop its objections to U.S. proposals for 10 missile interceptors in Poland and the radar system in the Czech Republic. In a speech Tuesday at the European Institute, he urged Moscow to link its radar system in Azerbaijan into the proposed U.S. one in Central Europe, running them in tandem.

The visit to Azerbaijan by a high-level delegation of missile experts came on Tuesday and was in response to a proposal from Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, to drop U.S. plans for new missile-defense construction in Central Europe, and to instead use the Azerbaijani radar in a system to defend against a possible Iranian threat. The delegation was led by Brigadier General Patrick O'Reilly, the missile agency's deputy director. It was the first time U.S. military officers had been allowed into the facility.

Obering, the director of the Missile Defense Agency, said: "We are taking the Russian proposal seriously with respect to cooperation. So we are going to learn as much as we can about this."

But he also said, "We do not anticipate, and cannot see, that what they are proposing can take the place of what we are proposing for Poland and the Czech Republic."

Based on current assessments of the Russian system, it is "not capable of performing the functions" of the U.S. radar proposed for the Czech Republic, he said.

The Russian radar in Azerbaijan has a broad view of the horizon and is useful for early warning, Obering said. By contrast, the U.S. system proposed for the Czech Republic is designed to have a quite narrow view, but one that is very detailed and exact, as required for tracking and targeting individual missiles.

The Russian system, he said, would be useful as a way to alert the missile-defense system to an Iranian attack.

"I do not know if that will be acceptable to the Russians," Obering said.

The Azerbaijani radar station, leased to the neighboring country for $7m a year, allows to track down air space for a distance of 6,000 km.

Opponents of the missile defense system in Congress have moved to cut the $310 million proposed this year for the European sites by $85 million in the current budget debates in Washington. But in language under consideration by the House, the Pentagon could submit a new request for the total financing once agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic are signed.