The U.S. radar base in the Czech Republic would be a part of NATO architecture, Deputy Director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Patrick O'Reilly said at a seminar on anti-missile defense on Tuesday.
NATO was developing a system protecting against short-range missiles, while the U.S. shield was against long-range missiles, O'Reilly said.
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 chiefly 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 the construction itself 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 U.S. 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 United States has set aside 90 million U.S. dollars that may be earned by Czech firms thanks to the construction of the U.S. radar base.
After the radar base were completed, the United States would provide investment bids for 40 million dollars annually, he said.
The United States 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 United States are still underway.
Russia has expressed strong objections to the U.S. missile defense program in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Some 70 percent of Czech citizens are opposed to the base, according to recent public opinion polls.
Source: Xinhua
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