Pentagon offers Russia to measure U.S. missile defense tests

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United States has invited Russia to use its own equipment, including radar, to measure U.S. missile defense tests.

According to RFE/RL, the director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly, said such action should convince Moscow the missiles are not powerful enough to threaten its own strategic deterrent missiles which are based deep inside Russia.

O'Reilly, said the SM-3 interceptor, to be based on land and sea, "can't reach that far."

Ellen Tauscher, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, said the United States is prepared to offer Moscow written assurances that the system being built in Europe is not directed against Moscow.

But Taucher also added: "We cannot provide legally binding commitments, nor can we agree to limitations on missile defense, which must necessarily keep pace with the evolution of the threat."

Tauscher repeated Washington's desire to cooperate with Moscow on the project, but cautioned the opportunity to do so was not an "infinite opportunity."

Tauscher held talks on the topic with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov last week in Moscow.

Tauscher and O'Reilly were both speaking at a forum in Washington hosted by the Atlantic Council.