That Polish missile defense back in the day was supposed to be only about protection from a Missile out of Pakistan or Iran. I believe it because they were only talking about a very few missiles. Like 20 or something. Clearly not aimed at stopping a Russian attack.
So my question, is why weren’t the Russians simply part of the center? Its easy to imagine an Islamic missile heading towards Moscow too. That would have been instant buy in.
To answer your question about why the Russians didn’t buy into missile defense...
1) If they did buy in, then their networks would be part of ours. They’ve been trying since the Star Wars speech to get their hands on that technology. We’re at least smart there.
2) They don’t trust us.
3) They’ve got their own ‘star wars’ program with the Voronezh radars and Iskander missiles. They’re trying to keep up.
4) A defense radar in Poland would protect our European allies. The current interceptors we have (in California and Alaska) *might* protect some of our allies. But the threat is there.
Lots of reasons why we haven’t tied in to the Russian missile defense network. As it is, our missile defense is not robust enough to withstand more than a couple missiles - certainly not a barrage from Russia or China - but maybe enough for North Korea or Iran.
Like you said, with only a couple dozen interceptors, we could only stop a few missiles. I guess that’s why Hagel ordered another dozen or so, but still...
If we really wanted to secure the country from missile attack we could. But it would be VERY expensive. And it would piss off the Russians and Chinese. Go figure.
What a shame it would be to protect the nation from all threats foreign. When we can’t protect against the domestic ones...
K.