The defense ministers of fourteen European NATO countries, in addition to Finland, signed this Thursday a letter of intent for the development of a “European Sky Shield Initiative”, a project led by Germany, to protect Europe from missile attacks.
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The signing took place on the margins of a meeting of allied defense ministers at the Atlantic Alliance headquarters.
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The fourteen NATO allies that signed were Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Romania, while Finland, a country in the process of joining the Atlantic Alliance, also joined.
NATO explained in a statement that the initiative aims to create a European air and missile defense system through the common acquisition of equipment by European nations.
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According to the organization, this will strengthen NATO’s integrated air and missile defense. “This commitment is even more crucial today, as we witness Russia’s ruthless and indiscriminate missile strikes in Ukrainekilling civilians and destroying critical infrastructure,” said NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana.
Geoana welcomed “Germany’s leadership” in this project, and trusted that its new assets, “fully interoperable and perfectly integrated into NATO’s air and anti-missile defense”, will “significantly improve the Alliance’s ability to defend of all air and anti-missile threats”.
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The four North American destroyers housed at the Rota naval base (southern Spain), to which another two are to be incorporated, they are a fundamental piece of the anti-missile system of the Atlantic Alliance.
Equipped with the AEGIS radar system, the four ships represent the United States’ contribution to NATO’s anti-missile defense architecture, which the alliance agreed to develop during the Lisbon Summit in November 2010 to protect European allies against potential threats, given the proliferation of ballistic missiles.
Rota, a naval base for joint use between Spain and the United States, has participated since 2013 in this defense program against ballistic missiles.
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According to NATO, the German initiative will allow all participating nations to jointly develop an air defense system using interoperable and ready-to-use solutions.
A “multinational and multifaceted” approach that will offer a “flexible and scalable” way for countries to strengthen their deterrence and defense efficiently and cost-effectively, the Alliance said.
EFE
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