Obama's new plan, the so-called "phased, adaptive approach" for a European missile defense system features a combination of fixed (ground-based) and relocatable (on U.S. warships) Standard Missile 3 interceptors and radars that focuses mainly on the threat from short- and medium-range missiles.

The system pushed by Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush, had banked on 10 long-range interceptor missiles stationed in Poland and a radar unit in the Czech Republic.

Obama last month decided to drop that plan, citing new intelligence indicating that the biggest security threat right now comes from Iranian short- and medium-range missiles instead of long-range ones, which Iran seems to have a hard time developing.

The new approach "will provide capability sooner, build on proven systems and offer greater defenses against the threat of missile attack than the 2007 European missile defense program," Obama said. Additionally, the plan foresees more advanced missiles and radars to be stationed in Europe once Iran has developed longer-range missiles.

The centerpiece of the new system is the 21-foot SM-3 missile built by defense contracting giant Raytheon. The Navy has been using and testing the missile, which costs an estimated $10 million to $15 million, relatively successfully. (The U.S. Navy fired an SM-3 from a Navy vessel in February 2008 to shoot down a failing U.S. spy satellite in space.)

Launched from a large Navy vessel, an SM-3 missile would try to hit and destroy an Iranian rocket outside the earth's atmosphere. Critics say, however, say that the SM-3 remains vulnerable to decoys such as balloons and flares.

But while technical uncertainties dominate any new missile defense system, other experts laud the new plan's inclusive approach.

"Fortunately, the 'phased, adaptive approach' emphasizes an important element to the European missile defense architecture that the Bush-era plans lacked -- the role of European allies in the framework of missile defense plans," writes Jerry Shin for the Center for Defense Information. "The administration's European missile defense policy aims to engage allies and NATO members more closely by integrating multilateralism in place of the individual bilateral agreements between the United States and Poland and the Czech Republic respectively."

It also leaves room for including Russia in the system; Moscow from the start had opposed Bush's missile defense system and has since reacted cautiously optimistic that it might even accept the new plan.

earlier related report
Clinton touts joint US-Russian missile shield
Moscow (AFP) Oct 14 - A joint US-Russian missile shield protecting the two former Cold War foes against nuclear-armed extremists would be "very positive," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday.

"It would be in my view a very positive outcome if some day in the future you see the United States and Russia announcing a joint plan on missile defence," she told an audience of students at Moscow State University.

Clinton stressed that the United States and Russia shared fundamental values and needed such a joint system to defend themselves against the threat of attacks by extremist groups.

"The biggest immediate threat the world faces are nuclear weapons under the control of groups of people... who believe that martyrdom or suicide attacks are a positive way to end one's life," Clinton said.

"That is not Russia and that is not the United States," she added.

Clinton did not specify who she meant, but Washington has said its missile defence plans are designed to protect against Iran, whose fiercely anti-US government supports the radical Islamic groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Russia has been deeply sceptical of the US plans, however, and it strongly opposed a plan backed by former US president George W. Bush to deploy missile defence facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Obama administration last month scrapped the eastern Europe plans and replaced them with a new scheme for a mobile, sea-based system designed to protect against short- and medium-range missiles.

Moscow welcomed the US move to scrap the Polish and Czech sites but it has not been entirely happy with the new system, which Washington says could also include land-based components in Europe from 2015.

"We currently have a whole array of questions about what has been decided on implementing the new scheme for creating a missile defence system," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday.

Ryabkov's comments came after he met on Monday with a senior US official, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Securty Ellen Tauscher, to discuss the new US missile plan.

"The Americans gave us fairly in-depth, detailed explanations on these questions and we will study them," Ryabkov said, quoted by Russian news agencies.

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