{"id":3612,"date":"2026-02-26T12:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/3612\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T12:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:39:07","slug":"belgium-to-arm-antwerp-port-with-anti-aircraft-guns-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/3612\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium to arm Antwerp port with anti-aircraft guns \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belgium said last October that it had purchased NASAMS systems<\/a> without disclosing where they would be deployed. De Wever had already pushed for air defenses at the Antwerp port<\/a> in 2024, warning that \u201cif you want peace, prepare for war.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASAMS \u2014 a Norwegian-American medium-range air-defense system \u2014 is built to intercept aircraft and drones, and is typically used to shield high-value infrastructure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Antwerp port, Europe\u2019s second-largest, is a petrochemical powerhouse and a key NATO logistics hub, including for the flow of U.S. military equipment into Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Drone incursions last year caused major disruptions in Belgium and other NATO countries, with drones spotted over the Port of Antwerp<\/a> \u2014 including the BASF chemical site and the Europa terminal \u2014 as well as over nuclear facilities elsewhere in the country.<\/p>\n

The move to boost defenses in Antwerp comes amid Belgium\u2019s effort to strengthen ground-based air defenses after decades of underinvestment<\/a>. NATO allies including Spain<\/a> and the Netherlands<\/a> have fielded NASAMS for years.<\/p>\n

With Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine having just entered its fifth year and transatlantic nerves fraying, EU capitals are increasingly preparing to protect critical infrastructure themselves rather than assuming Washington will step in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgium said last October that it had purchased NASAMS systems without disclosing where they would be deployed. De…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[2970,2971,76,7,1401,401,1597,834,408,426,427,2972,2671,390,116,180,181,87,396,943],"class_list":["post-3612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-air-defense","tag-airports","tag-bart-de-wever","tag-belgium","tag-chemicals","tag-critical-infrastructure","tag-defense","tag-drones","tag-infrastructure","tag-logistics","tag-military","tag-missiles","tag-ports","tag-russia","tag-spain","tag-the-netherlands","tag-trade","tag-united-states","tag-war","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}