By Xinhua
Prague : The US radar base in the Czech Republic would be a part of NATO architecture, Deputy Director of the Missile Defence Agency (MDA) Patrick O’Reilly said here at a seminar on anti-missile defence.
NATO was developing a system protecting against short-range missiles, while the US shield was against long-range missiles, O’Reilly said Tuesday.
The systems would cooperate and share the information on danger, he pointed out. The radar in the Czech Republic would not serve as any early warning station and would not be constantly switched on, he said.
It was mainly devised to precisely watch the missiles that had already been launched, he added.
The base would be fully functional in 2014 or 2015, O’Reilly said, adding that construction would last four years and the system would be tested for another year.
He said by 2015, there would be a real danger of an attack from the US viewpoint. The threat might not only be posed by nuclear, but also biological and chemical weapons that could carry the warheads.
According to O’Reilly, the US has set aside $90 million that may be earned by Czech firms, thanks to the construction of the US radar base.
After the radar base is completed, the US would provide investment bids for $40 million annually, he said.
The US initiated the plan to deploy an anti-missile radar base in the Czech Republic and a missile interceptor base in Poland. Negotiations between the Czech Republic and the US are still underway.
Russia has expressed strong objections to the US missile defence programme in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Around 70 percent of Czech citizens are opposed to the base, according to recent public opinion polls.