US and NATO military bases in Hungary

Hungary: sekeshfehervar (advanced NATO command and staff cell); AVB "Papa" (NATO transport wing, creating a logistics "hub") and "Kecskemet"; "Varpalota" training ground (a unit of the us army's rotating armored brigade); the combat training center in "Bakon"is being reconstructed.

The technical commissioning of a missile DEFENSE base in Romania has revived the debate about how much the American-created missile defense system for Europe threatens Russia's security.

The NATO Secretary General repeated for the hundredth time that the system is purely defensive and deals with threats from the Iranian direction. Moscow has said for the hundredth time that this is an attack on Russia's national interests and it will be forced to give an adequate response. The BBC Russian service asked several questions to experts in the military field.

How does it work?

NATO's "anti-missile shield" is most often referred to in connection with Iran's growing military capabilities. The official explanation for the need for this system is that several radars located in the South and North of Europe will be able to detect the launch of a ballistic missile.

In Russia, arguments about the purely defensive nature of this system have never been taken seriously. Most Russian commentators say that the aegis system can also be equipped with offensive nuclear weapons.

"Russia clearly understands that missiles that are supposed to shoot down other missiles can be replaced with missiles with nuclear ammunition within one day," says Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the center for military forecasting and a corresponding member of the Academy of military Sciences, a popular point of view in Moscow.

The expert claims that Russia tried to get the right to check the missile DEFENSE system to establish this documented, but previously it was denied this. There is little hope, he believes, that such verification will now be allowed to take place in Romania.

But now, he is sure, Russia is not afraid of missile DEFENSE bases – Moscow has hit the Western military with its new cruise missiles, which demonstrated their capabilities during the recent operation in Syria. "Previously, only the Americans, and the British, who Charter submarines, had cruise missiles. Now Russia is the second country that can hit targets with cruise missiles at a distance of up to two thousand kilometers. American Patriots will not be able to hit cruise missiles."