US President Barack Obama, on a two day visit to Poland, at the beginning of June 2011, for bi-lateral talks on energy and military co-operation, as well as meetings with 20 heads of state from central and eastern Europe, signed a deal for the permanent deployment of a US air detatchment in Poland, which Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich has confirmed.

"An agreement on the permanent deployment of the US Air Force assets in Poland and the periodic rotation of F-16 fighter jets in the country will be signed after Obama's visit," he added. The new aviation detatchment will service F-16 fighter jets and C-130J Hercules transport planes, and the F-16 rotation is expected to begin in 2013.

Senior White House National Security Official Liz Sherwood-Randall said,"What we will be doing is rotating trainers and aircraft to Poland so that they can become more inter-oprable with NATO." The US has already deployed a Patriot battery in Poland on a rotational basis and also expected to host Standard Missile-3 interceptors as part of a new US missile defense plan.

Recently, the US refused a Russian request to provide legally binding guarantees that its European missile defense system would not be directed at Russia. According to RIA Novosti, Russia and NATO had previously agreed to co-operate in the creation of a joint missile defense shield in Europe during a NATO-Russia Council meeting in Lisbon.

"Russia will enhance its strike nuclear capabilities if missile cooperation with NATO fails in the European missile defense project," said Russian President Dimitry Medvedev. "I hope we will be able to forge a missile defense model. If we don't, we will have to take retaliatory measures...This means forcing the development of our strike nuclear potential," he added.

"Russia will develop its own nuclear offensive arms race if NATO fails to reach an agreement over the European defense shield," said Anatoly Serdyukov, Russian Defense Minister, following a NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels. In the meantime, "Russia will be testing its new radar, the Voronezh DM, being built near the Baltic port of Kaliningrad, by the end of 2011," said Russia's space forces commander General Oleg Ostapenko. The new Voronezh DM, with a range 4,000 km, has similiar capabilities as its predecessors, Dnepr and Daryal, according to RIA Novosti.

The hope is that this time US-led NATO will intervene between Russia and Germany and save the small countries in between.

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