The US officially activated a new advanced radar system in Romania on Thursday, a critical milestone in making a European missile defense system operational that was immediately denounced by Moscow.

According to The Wall Street Journal, officials from the US, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Romania who gathered in Deveselu to inaugurate the alliance-led system promised it would help protect Europe by being able to knock shorter-range Iranian ballistics out of the sky.

Russian officials have long countered that the system threatens peace and is deeply destabilizing. In the past, they have threatened to target countries that host the radar or ships that make up the backbone of the system.

Source : MENA