Reuters
The U.S. and Romanian governments are expected to announce on Friday completion of a new missile defense site south of Bucharest that will defend against potential attacks from Iran, according to three U.S. defense and government officials…
…Riki Ellison, founder of the nonprofit Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, said last week’s successful test of the Aegis Ashore off the coast of Hawaii paved the way for Friday’s event.
“This system is now in place to protect southern Europe from any specific threat from Iran should they decide to continue to break the treaty,” Ellison said.
In news first reported by Reuters, a team of sanctions monitors found on Tuesday that Iran violated a U.N. Security Council resolution by test-firing a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.
A second U.S. official said the U.S. response to the Iranian test would likely be diplomatic, but noted that the U.S. Navy maintains a number of warships equipped with Aegis missile defense equipment in the Gulf region and in the eastern Mediterranean to guard against potential attacks from Iran.
Hawkins said there were currently four ballistic missile destroyers deployed to Rota, Spain, including two that were at sea, and four destroyers in the U.S. Central Command area, including two in the Gulf and two more heading there as part of the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group.
Syring told lawmakers in March that MDA was on schedule to complete the required military construction, installation, integration and testing at the Romania site to issue a “technical capability declaration” in 2015.
