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POPS Retreat! In a briefing at the Pentagon, Mr Gates said that the new system could be operational six or seven years before the Bush-era shield would have come online, more effectively replying to future threats. Mr Gates said that the initial stage of the new American plan would see the deployment of Aegis-equipped ships, armed with interceptors, giving the military the ability to move the system around. Another key to the near-term network would be new, more mobile radar used to detect and track short- and medium-range missiles if they were launched from Iran. Mr Gates said that a second phase of the plan would add a modified version of a land-based missile that is still being developed. He said that the United States had told the Czech Republic and Poland that they would be part of that stage of the system, which will not be in place until 2015 - but could still result in American missiles being based in Eastern Europe.
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