US warship heads out to protect Europe from Iranian missiles
Submitted by Jamie Williamson on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 18:09
Washington, Mar. 2 : The US military has plans to send a warship to the Mediterranean as a first step in establishing a defence shield to protect Europe from a potential missile by from Iran.
The USS Monterey, a guided missile cruiser which is equipped with the Aegis radar to detect ballistic missiles, will depart next week from Norfolk, Virginia, on a six-month mission, said John Plumb, Director of Nuclear and Missile Defence Policy.
The launch of the ship will fulfil the US administration''s goal of deploying military hardware for the shield in 2011, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Plumb said: "Now, here is our first concrete demonstration of our commitment to the missile defence of our deployed forces, allies and partners in Europe”, after US President Barack Obama announced a new missile defense policy in 2009.
"We said we were going to do it, and now we''re doing it", he said.
He added that the Ticonderoga-class ship, which will conduct exercises with US forces in the region, will form part of a planned "routine presence" by similar vessels supporting the system.
Guided missile cruisers have been sent to the Mediterranean previously but this will be the first time such a ship had been deployed to back up the missile defence system.
The NATO alliance endorsed the shield at a summit in Lisbon last year but skeptics of the program have questioned the reliability of the anti-missile weaponry.
Plumb said that the US had plans to deploy land-based radars later this year in Europe but negotiations are still going on.
As part of the "phased" approach, land-based SM-3 interceptors are due to be deployed in Romania by 2015 and in Poland by 2018, with more advanced versions of the weaponry to be introduced at each stage.
The military is still developing a land-based model for the SM-3 interceptor, which is currently deployed on naval ships.
According to the Obama administration the missile defense system is primarily aimed at the potential threat posed by Iran''s nuclear program and its growing number of medium-range missiles. (ANI)
