U.S. Naval Support Facility Deveselu in Romania, home to NATO’s Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense System site, pictured Aug. 9, 2019. NATO this week increased its ballistic missile defense posture across the alliance in response to Iran’s Wednesday strike attempt against ally Turkey. (Amy Forsythe/U.S. Navy)
NATO this week increased its ballistic missile defense posture across the alliance in response to an Iranian missile fired at Turkey, a member of the bloc that hosts a major air base.
Lt. Gen. Jason Hinds, head of NATO Allied Air Command and commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe, ordered NATO defenses to heighten their readiness, a top alliance spokesman said Thursday.
“He has also recommended that NATO’s ballistic missile defense measures remain at this level until the threat from Iran, which indiscriminately targets the region, ceases,” Col. Martin O’Donnell, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe spokesman, said in a statement.
There was unanimous support across the alliance for the stepped-up measure, the specifics of which were not disclosed for security reasons.
On Wednesday, NATO defenses shot down an incoming threat directed at Turkey, home to the strategic Incirlik Air Base, which is located near the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea and hosts U.S. forces.
“In less than 10 minutes, personnel in NATO service detected a threat to Allies from a ballistic missile, confirmed its trajectory, alerted land and sea-based missile defense systems, and launched a preventive missile to neutralize the threat, protecting our territory and our people,” O’Donnell said.
NATO’s missile defense system, which involves a U.S. Aegis Ashore site in Romania and U.S Navy destroyers out of Rota, Spain, was initiated over 15 years ago and developed in phases over time with a ballistic missile threat from Iran in mind.
The NATO system includes a missile defense suite in Poland and an early-warning mountaintop radar in Kurecik, Turkey.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Ignatius fires its gun during an exercise, Dec. 4, 2025, in the Atlantic Ocean. NATO’s missile defense system includes Navy destroyers deployed throughout the region. (Joseph Macklin/U.S. Navy)