An Aegis cruiser, without the hull
On Sept. 17, 2009, President Obama announced that the United States would provide missile defenses to NATO, to include the deployment of SM-3 interceptor missiles at landbased sites in Romania and Poland. Now of course the SM-3 is a naval missile, so this led to a new take on an old idea.
The Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System (AAMDS) at Naval Support Facility (NSF) Deveselu, Romania is Phase 2 of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) to ballistic missile defense. AAMDS has many of the same components used at sea on guided-missile destroyers and cruisers, to include the Aegis Weapon System, Mk. 41 Vertical Launch System, and SPY-1 radar, but it can only fire the SM-3.
In short, it’s an unsinkable cruiser in a corn field so to speak.
The Navy just released some B-roll footage of the base inside and out including the “Deckhouse” and CIC, which is kinda rare access, so take the silent tour in the two videos below, before they disappear in the name of OPSEC.
Makes a lot of sense. If it works on a ship at sea, it’ll work on a hilltop, or in a field. As a system it’s tried, tested and fully worked up, and has an established logistics infrastructure and body of experts who understand it.
I remember some time ago being in a casual discussion about using the Royal Navy’s integrated mast from the Type 45 destroyer in a similar way. There was some suggestion at the time that the Saudi’s might buy a couple of hulls, or that they were only interested in the Sampson radar and PAAMS, possibly for a land-based installation. I began wondering how many Type 45 masts you would need to create a modern day Chain Home network across the Arabian peninsular, although it would only really be needed along the Gulf coast. But if you were in a hurry, and money was no object, this kind of approach provides a ready-made solution. Aegis, for instance, is still in production, so it basically comes off the shelf!