We have naval forces that deploy to you. Do they have to adapt to that to meet this threat? Or do they come well prepared to meet whatever mission that you assign to them?

The rotational forces that deploy are very well trained and very well prepared; and the BMD forces are prepared when they arrive. Among the services, the Navy is actually growing in Europe. The BMD site in Deveselu, Romania is going to come online by the end of this year, Poland will come online in ’18. And so we’re growing in numbers and in high end capability. I look forward to getting all four ships—the last two arrive this year at Rota [Spain] – they will then become experts here in the theater, in the operations, in the geography, and how they maneuver in the space. The big bonus is they’re able on a consistent basis to work with our allies and partners. They may find themselves doing an exercise up north in the Baltic; they could then be operating with the French carrier; or they could be up in the Black Sea. Their continued presence here as an FDNF [forward-deployed naval forces] will bring the additional knowledge and experience with the AOR over-and-above the rotational deployers that are just here for a few months before heading back home.

The people I’ve talked to aboard the USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) and the USS Ross (DDG 71) say they’re already seeing that. They’re already gaining that familiarity with the commanding officers of the ships of the other navies that they meet, and the base commanders where they call.

I think we’re forging very close relationships with our allies here – that’s the force multiplier. But even more importantly, when our ships routinely operate in the Eastern Mediterranean and become familiar with the environment, or they transit a few times into the Black Sea and back out, and they begin to work with allies such as the Ukrainians, Romanians or the Turkish navies in the Black Sea, they become more proficient in their operational skills. There’s nothing better to build proficiency than those FDNF deployments on a routine basis. The four crews in Rota will become the experts in the AOR. I hope to build upon what they come with in theater, to be able to address the new threats that we see proliferating with their ideas and innovation.

So they’re here first and foremost for BMD, but they retain their ability to conduct the full spectrum of combat operations?

We intend to keep the ships certified for full spectrum operations. They will get time to operate with carrier strike groups that come through; for example, they will participate in the Joint Warrior series of exercises at the high end with our NATO allies. I think these ships have to be ready and be on-call to respond to the full spectrum of missions. It will not just be BMD.

We’ve had BMD-capable ships in 6th fleet, but now we’re going to have four of them. So how does that alter the naval presence in the region?

One FDNF ship represents three ships that Fleet Forces Command would have to generate and put through the cycle in order to be over here for a certain level of deployment. The four allow me to keep some on the BMD stations in the eastern Med; allow me to do maintenance and training; and support work with our allies and partners in other missions for NATO or AFRICOM as those missions arise – supplemented by other rotational forces from the U.S. Having the ships based in Rota builds the expertise and gives me a pool of forces to draw on for more than just BMD.

Some of the other nations are acquiring some pretty good air warfare surface combatants. Norway and Spain have Aegis ships. The Netherlands and the U.K. air defense ships have some BMD capability. When we take our four ships, do we plan to work with the other navies that have tracking capability, or perhaps could shoot another ship’s tracking solution? Is that all part of the calculus?

Our vision is that as we integrate this capability into the NATO Alliance, and that as our allies come online, we will do a series of joint exercises. As you look at the flight times and the threat and how the ballistic missile engagement cycle will take place in a few minutes, and the proliferation of these missiles around the world, it means we must work with our allies to build this capability and capacity in Europe. The foundational piece is the NATO Alliance, because it gives us standards for interoperability, the common procedures, and the framework of nations that contribute to it.