DISINFO: US AEGIS system in Romania ready to attack Russia with cruise missiles
SUMMARY
The US AEGIS system in Romania is ready to attack Russia with cruise missiles. According to information from military analysts, the USA is continuing to expand its missile base in Romania. The Mk 41 vertical launch facility there is designed to attack land targets with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Modernising the Deveselu site poses a real threat to Russia that should not go unanswered, and Moscow has a wide range of possible countermeasures at its disposal. The USA is probably planning to station the BGM-109 Tomahawk land-based US cruise missiles there, which had previously been banned by the INF Treaty.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about missile defence systems. The Aegis missile defence system (Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defence System) is not in violation of the INF Treaty. The US State Department issued a detailed rebuttal of Russian allegations of US noncompliance with the INF Treaty in 2018. According to the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa (2016): the Aegis Ashore Missile Defence System is part of the European Phased Adapted Approach, designed to protect European NATO allies, and U.S. deployed forces in the region, against current and emerging ballistic threats from the Middle East. U.S. Naval Forces ruled out the possibility of targeting the Russian Federation with the "Aegis Ashore" system. The Romanian Defence Minister Teodor Melescanu also reiterated on 7 February 2019 that "Aegis Ashore" was a strictly defensive system. The missile defence stations, also known as "Aegis Ashore", are technically based on the Mk41 launchers (in accordance with the INF Treaty) used on ships, which can also launch cruise missiles. According to the US government they are modified that they can only launch defence missiles and not offensive ground-to-ground missiles, concludes the Research Services of the German Bundestag in 2018 (P.2, in German).