Seapower:
The Sept. 25 arrival of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney at Naval Station Rota, Spain, completes a two-year build-up of sea-based ballistic-missile defense (BMD) capability for U.S. European Command.
Carney, formerly based in Mayport, Fla., joined three other destroyers — USS Donald Cook, USS Ross and USS Porter — forward-deployed to Rota. The four DDGs rotate in patrols providing BMD for NATO in Europe, and also are available for other tasks in support of U.S. operations in the European region.
The four DDGs are the sea-based component of the U.S. European Phased Adaptive Approach to BMD in Europe. The land-based component includes two Aegis Ashore sites, one scheduled to reach operational capability this fall in Romania and another being built in Poland. The Aegis Combat Systems and the Standard missiles of the ships and shore sites will provide a defense against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles fired from the Middle East.
The four DDGs also represent a reversal of the decline in permanently assigned forces to the U.S. Sixth Fleet. For many years, the only U.S. Navy ship permanently based in the Mediterranean was the fleet’s flagship, the Blue Ridge-class amphibious command ship USS Mount Whitney.
