Trump aims to resurrect ‘Star Wars’ program – Russia
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has drawn parallels between Donald Trump’s “Iron Dome” and a missile shield plan from the Cold War era. Read Full Article at RT.com
TroibNews 
US moves to weaponize space are deeply destabilizing, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that US President Donald Trump’s directive to establish an American ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense system represents a destabilizing shift towards the weaponization of space.
Earlier this week, Trump issued an executive order to develop advanced missile defenses, which includes the authorization for “space-based interceptors,” among other initiatives, Zakharova informed reporters on Friday.
“We see this as yet another confirmation of the US focus on turning space into an arena for armed confrontation, warfare, and the deployment of weapons,” she remarked.
Such actions would “completely discredit” the preceding US administration’s efforts to establish “certain norms, rules and principles” for behavior in space, and would breach the ban on testing direct-ascent and satellite-killer missiles, she noted.
Zakharova indicated that Trump's decisions “indicate Washington's intention to actively develop and expand deeply destabilizing military programs,” highlighting that it would result in missile defenses expanding “to a scale comparable to Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’.”
President Ronald Reagan had proposed a missile shield as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative during the Cold War, referred to as ‘Star Wars’. This initiative sparked an arms race between the US and the Soviet Union.
Despite the effort, the US never succeeded in developing the space-based weapons that Reagan envisioned, and tensions eventually lessened with the signing of various arms-control treaties. However, Washington has since withdrawn from nearly all of these agreements, including the ABM treaty that banned strategic missile defenses and the INF treaty that limited short- and intermediate-range missiles in Europe.
According to Zakharova on Friday, Trump’s program is “openly aimed” at undermining the strategic deterrent of Russia and China, and “will not contribute to reducing tensions or improving the situation in the strategic sphere, including creating a basis for a fruitful dialogue on strategic armaments.”
These perilous notions underscore the significance of Russia’s proposals for establishing legally binding agreements to prevent an arms race in outer space, encompassing measures to prohibit the deployment of space-based weapons.
The executive order issued on January 27 directs the Pentagon to formulate a strategy for safeguarding US territory from “ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries” through a multi-layered missile shield.
This “Iron Dome,” named after Israel’s short-range missile defense system, would entail the “development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors,” capable of intercepting incoming ballistic missiles during their boost phase, alongside unspecified “capabilities to defeat missile attacks prior to launch,” as outlined in the text of the order.
Ian Smith contributed to this report for TROIB News
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that US President Donald Trump’s directive to establish an American ‘Iron Dome’ missile defense system represents a destabilizing shift towards the weaponization of space.
Earlier this week, Trump issued an executive order to develop advanced missile defenses, which includes the authorization for “space-based interceptors,” among other initiatives, Zakharova informed reporters on Friday.
“We see this as yet another confirmation of the US focus on turning space into an arena for armed confrontation, warfare, and the deployment of weapons,” she remarked.
Such actions would “completely discredit” the preceding US administration’s efforts to establish “certain norms, rules and principles” for behavior in space, and would breach the ban on testing direct-ascent and satellite-killer missiles, she noted.
Zakharova indicated that Trump's decisions “indicate Washington's intention to actively develop and expand deeply destabilizing military programs,” highlighting that it would result in missile defenses expanding “to a scale comparable to Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’.”
President Ronald Reagan had proposed a missile shield as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative during the Cold War, referred to as ‘Star Wars’. This initiative sparked an arms race between the US and the Soviet Union.
Despite the effort, the US never succeeded in developing the space-based weapons that Reagan envisioned, and tensions eventually lessened with the signing of various arms-control treaties. However, Washington has since withdrawn from nearly all of these agreements, including the ABM treaty that banned strategic missile defenses and the INF treaty that limited short- and intermediate-range missiles in Europe.
According to Zakharova on Friday, Trump’s program is “openly aimed” at undermining the strategic deterrent of Russia and China, and “will not contribute to reducing tensions or improving the situation in the strategic sphere, including creating a basis for a fruitful dialogue on strategic armaments.”
These perilous notions underscore the significance of Russia’s proposals for establishing legally binding agreements to prevent an arms race in outer space, encompassing measures to prohibit the deployment of space-based weapons.
The executive order issued on January 27 directs the Pentagon to formulate a strategy for safeguarding US territory from “ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries” through a multi-layered missile shield.
This “Iron Dome,” named after Israel’s short-range missile defense system, would entail the “development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors,” capable of intercepting incoming ballistic missiles during their boost phase, alongside unspecified “capabilities to defeat missile attacks prior to launch,” as outlined in the text of the order.
Ian Smith contributed to this report for TROIB News
