Wednesday 13 November saw the official inauguration of the AEGIS ASHORE interceptor site in Poland, despite the system having been declared “mission ready” already back in July by then NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Earlier still, the site had been accepted by the US Navy on Dec. 15, 2023, where the newly build site entered a planned maintenance period to upgrade the network and computer systems to fully integrate within the US Ballistic Missile Defense System, before starting operations under NATO command and control.
The Redzikowo site finally joins the sister AEGIS ASHORE installation at Deveselu in Romania, which has been operational since 2016. The entire program has its roots in the year 2009 when the US committed to fielding anti-ballistic missile defences in Europe against the risk of missile attacks from Iran.
The entire “shield” in Europe also includes an early warning site at Kurecik, in Turkey, where an Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance AN/TPY-2 radar is deployed to serve as early warning sensor. The AN/TPY-2 is mainly known for being the main sensor of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor batteries.
The Deveselu and Redzikowo AEGIS ASHORE sites sit in the path of any realistic ballistic trajectory going from Iran to Europe and beyond towards the continental US. Each site has a full “deckhouse” fitted with the AN/SPY-1 radar, and above-ground towers containing MK41 vertical launch modules as found normally on ships. Each site has 3 “MK41 towers”, each with 8 cells for SM-3 exo-atmospheric interceptor missiles.
The US anti-ballistic element in Europe also includes 4 DDG-51 class destroyers forward deployed out of Rota, in Spain. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has celebrated the inauguration welcoming the US presence in Poland as a key guarantee of security. While Russia has always lamented the presence of AEGIS ASHORE as a threat to the effectiveness of its nuclear deterrent, the position of the interceptor sites is eminently unsuited to defending the US from ballistic launches from the territory of Russia, which would follow Arctic trajectories.
The radar coverage of the AEGIS ashore dispositive is deliberately oriented towards the Middle East, and now this is starting to be seen as a very real limitation from a NATO point of view. Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said publicly that the scope of the system should now change specifically to improve the ability of the system to respond to Russian missiles launched towards Europe. Warsaw will push for this, opening discussions with the US and with NATO.
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