The US Air Force, according to what reported by Stars and Stripes, would have carried out the first flights with the drone MQ-9 Reaper starting from the Mirosławiec air base in Poland. Deployment of UAVs in Poland would be a way for the United States to continue increasing regional stability, working in full coordination with the Polish government, as can be read in a brief note issued by the USAF. No doubt starting from Poland it is conceivable that the object of the aerial observations made with the Reaper Russian military movements will be near the borders of the Baltic countries, Poland and Ukraine, as well as those in coastal areas.
MQ-9 Reaper will be disarmed and will be used, therefore, only to support and to achieve the objectives of the US foreign security policy, all through surveillance and aerial reconnaissance. In fact, for the time being there is no plan to introduce other aircraft to the Polish base, so as not to further increase tensions with Russia. Also because i Reaper they do not have the capacity for electronic warfare and, in case of conflict, they would be killed without difficulty by the Russian air defense system. Probably the task of UAVs, unlike their traditional use on the battlefield, will be to monitor the coastal areas of the Baltic and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, where the Russian navy has increased the number of exercises.
The deployment of MQ-9 ReaperHowever, it may not be the only American decision against Europe in the military field. First of all because the Polish government has recently asked for a greater, if not permanent, American military presence in its territory, in such a way as to deter possible, but very unlikely, Russian initiatives. The offer of the Polish Defense Ministry was to offer 2 billion to the United States in exchange for an American armored division.
Furthermore, according to an indiscretion of the New York Times, the US Department of Defense, in recent months, would have had some preliminary talks with the respective German, to deploy the THAAD missile defense system (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) in Europe. A move that would have been envisioned immediately following President Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the nuclear deal with Iran. In fact, the American fear and, also, of the European states is that the Iranian threats are turned into something else and the range of the Shahab-3, about 2.000 km, also puts Europe and the American military installations present in hypothetical danger.
If THAAD were to be deployed in Europe, despite the news being officially denied by the Pentagon, this would on the one hand increase the European missile defense, but on the other hand it could increase tensions with Russia, which would see its boundaries increasingly "encircled" by NATO forces.
(photo: US DoD)
