The first of four US Navy destroyers, the USS Donald Cook, set to be a cornerstone of NATO’s European missile defense shield has arrived at the Spanish naval port of Rota, its new home. Russia says the system is a direct threat to its

The first of four US Navy destroyers, the USS Donald Cook, set to be a cornerstone of NATO’s European missile defense shield has arrived at the Spanish naval port of Rota, its new home. Russia says the system is a direct threat to its security.

The USS Donald Cook will be joined by three more Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, which all are fitted with the Aegis weapon system. Over the next two years the USS Ross, USS Porter and USS Carney will all be based at Rota in southern Spain.

“For the first time, a ship of the United States Navy equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile-defense system is permanently based in Europe,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO Secretary General. “The arrival of the USS Donald Cook marks a step forward for NATO, for European security, and for transatlantic cooperation.”

The deployment of the four destroyers, known as the European Phased Adaptive Approach, is a centerpiece of the European missile defense shield, which will also include interceptor batteries in Poland and Romania, radar in Turkey and a command center at Ramstein in Germany, a US Air Force base.

US military interest in the Mediterranean has increased in recent years because of conflict and instability across the Middle East and North Africa.

“Permanently forward deploying four ships in Rota will enable us to be in the right place, not just at the right time, but all the time,” US Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a Defense Department statement when USS Cook left its home port in the US in January.

The four destroyers will also take part in other maritime security operations, NATO deployments and training exercises, the Defense Department said.

According to a NATO statement, the system is designed to “protect all NATO European populations and territory.” Its advocates say it is necessary to protect Europe from the threat of Iranian missiles, as well as other so-called rogue states, such as North Korea.

Russia says the system is major threat to its own security and has threatened to beef up its own nuclear arsenal in response.