Suggestions for a European Sea-based Shooter Contribution
With regard to developing an affordable European contribution with maritime BMD shooters, one should discuss different options up to and including the leasing of intercept missiles. In particular, it would be worth considering a European missile pool with reasonable capacity that is also available for the US Navy. European allies such as Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Spain, together with the US, could provide enough sea-based BMD capacity for the Mediterranean, taking the four deployed US Navy AEGIS destroyers into account and presuming the six aforementioned European navies would altogether come up with six BMD frigates. Keeping the permanent operational duties of the European navies in mind, the call for this number of ships equipped for the BMD shooter role should be seen as appropriate (one per nation on average, or fewer nations sharing the cost of more than one). With a pool of ten total ships, the US and European forces could maintain a permanent presence of up to four BMD shooters in the Mediterranean area with a common stock of intercept missiles, while respecting a rotation cycle of mission, maintenance, and mission preparation.