United States Considers Mediterranean Aegis Ship

The United States has 18 Aegis ships worldwide. Those ships are capable of intercepting ICBM (intercontinental ballistic) missiles above the Earth’s atmosphere. The US is looking at moving two of those ships, or putting two new ones, in the Middle East.

Regional maps issued by the US show that a Mediterranean based Aegis could cover Israel, Lebanon, Southern Turkey, and Northern Egypt from any missile threats.  A ship based in the Arabian Gulf could cover allies with a similar range.

The USS Higgins, one of the 18 Aegis ships around the world, docked in Israel this week.  Iran certainly took notice.  Israeli missile technicians said that the Aegis ship could be integrated with Israel’s current Arrow II missile defense seamlessly.

Israel’s biggest worry in relying on the Aegis ship is the payload.  The Aegis cruisers only carry 24 SM-3 interceptor missiles.  A barrage from Iran, Syria, or Lebanon (or a combination) could easily wipe out the 24 missiles and leave Israel defenseless.  The US seems weary of filling all 90 launch tubes on the ship with a $10 million missile.

In all, Israel is happy to have the ship in the region, but cannot rely on it completely.  Israel would need a big commitment from the US to rely on several ships with full payloads to consider itself adequately covered by the US.  In the meantime, Israel is working on upgrading its own Iron Dome short range-long range missile defense system.  The new Arrow III is promising, as is a new potential land system for the SM-3 missiles.

Read the whole story at Reuters India.  The ship in the image is a similar class ship not noted in the article.