US Patriot missiles in Poland will be combat-ready

Earlier reports said the Pentagon would deploy all the infrastructure needed for the battery’s operation, but the missiles themselves would not have combat warheads.

Vershbow visited Poland to present the new US missile shield plan. The Pentagon wants a naval-based system patrolling European borders as an alternative to the shelved ground-based system. It will use AEGIS radars and SM-3 missiles to intercept possible ballistic missiles.

Starting from 2015, ground elements will be added to the system. Several bases in Europe will host SM-3 missiles. US officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said Poland and the Czech Republic, both of which were part of the old plan, could be one of the hosting countries.

Earlier, Ukrainian and American officials stated that Ukrainian territory may be used in some way in the new antimissile shield. A joint system, which would include Russian facilities, is also on the agenda.

Commenting on the developments on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow wanted Washington’s plans to have greater transparency.

“The United States are developing an alternative system, which will not cause problems we had with the third positioning region [in Poland and Czech Republic – RT], but we’d like to have more clarity on later stages,” cites him ITAR TASS.