Navy combatants can defend against emerging missile threat.

• Author: Lundquist, Edward
• Position: ANALYSIS

A growing Russian threat to surface ships in the European theater has prompted the U.S. Navy to upgrade its four guided-missile destroyers (DDGs) forward deployed to Rota, Spain. The multi-mission ships have a sophisticated ballistic missile defense capability as part of their Aegis weapon system.

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The four DDGs comprise the forward-deployed naval forces, which support the European phased adaptive approach to defend Europe against ballistic missile threats from the Middle East. However, Russia views their presence, as well as the establishment of land-based Aegis ashore missile defense sites in Romania and Poland, as directed against Russia, and has increased its offensive capability in the region.

U.S. and NATO officials have warned that Russia has deployed capable offensive weapons in the region--including the annexed territory of Crimea--that pose a significant threat to naval forces operating in the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean. Those threats presumably include the Russian Kalibr and Iskander missiles.

The North Atlantic ocean, Norwegian, Baltic, Black and Mediterranean seas are the maritime flanks of the NATO alliance, said Adm. Mark Ferguson, commander of Naval Forces Europe and Africa, speaking at the Atlantic Council last October. "It is here we are observing the manifestation of a more aggressive, more capable Russian navy. It is a naval capability focused directly on addressing the perceived advantages of NATO navies. And they are signaling us and warning us that the maritime space is a contested domain.

"We have to be pacing these threats--both the asymmetric threats coming from the south, coming from the east, and then all the way up to the high-end threat coming from Russia," said Ferguson in a recent interview.

While the four ballistic missile defense DDGs are multimission combatants, they may find themselves focused on a mission to deal with exo-atmospheric threats. And they can be vulnerable to a range of threats that might otherwise warrant an escort to defend against anti-ship cruise missiles or other weapons.

As a means to improve the defensive capability of these ships, the Navy is adding the SeaRAM weapon system to help counter the emerging threat.

"We just put SeaRAM on the USS Porter, and you'll see that go on all of our forward-deployed ships," Ferguson said. "I'm committed to delivering additional lethality to our fleet."

According to Ferguson, SeaRAM complements the coverage of CIWS, or...