The Polish lower house of parliament on Friday September 25th authorized the Polish President to ratify the technical agreement on a US base missile base. This missile base will be located at Redzikowo in northern Poland. Construction of the base is planned to begin in 2016 and should be finished by 2018.
The agreement, when implemented, forms a part of the US missile defense shield. Under a deal signed in 2010 the US will station several SM-3 ballistic missile interceptors in the village of Redzikowo. The missile shield in Poland is seen to be a primary defense against ballistic missile attacks from “rogue states”. The primary function thus is to intercept future ballistic missiles fired from Iran towards the United States .
Russia however perceives the missile shield to be used against Russian ballistic missiles, thus denying Russia any change of firing a retaliatory nuclear strike in case it is attacked first.
Given the huge majority of the voters, 422 members of parliament with three voting against and five abstaining, indicates that Poland is more than willing to place US troops and bases on its territory. From the Polish point of view there is a lot to gain in allowing US troops to be based in Poland. Any country attacking Poland now risks to draw in US support for Poland, thus Poland gains an extra deterrent by allowing US troops to be based in the country.
The SM-3 is capable of shooting down ballistic missiles and by placing these missiles in the north of Poland it is possible that these missiles are capable of shooting down Iskander-M ballistic missiles in case these are stationed in Kaliningrad.
