An officer assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook is greeted at the gangplank as the ship arrives in Rota, Spain, on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. (Arif Patani/U.S. Navy)
An officer assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook is greeted at the gangplank as the ship arrives in Rota, Spain, on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. (Arif Patani/U.S. Navy)
Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook man the rails as the ship arrives in Rota, Spain, on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. (Arif Patani/U.S. Navy)
Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook lower the gangplank as the ship arrives in Rota, Spain, on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. Donald Cook is the first of four Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers to be stationed in Rota. (Arif Patani/U.S. Navy)
Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook man the rails as the ship arrives in Rota, Spain, on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. (Arif Patani/U.S. Navy)
Sailors wash down the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook while it was en route to Rota, Spain, where it arrived on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, as the first of four Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers to be stationed there. (Andrew B. Church/U.S. Navy)
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook steams off the coast of Norfolk, Va, on its way to Rota, Spain, where it arrived Feb. 11, 2014. It is the first of four U.S. Navy destroyers to form the centerpiece of Europe?s missile defense shield there. (Adam Austin/U.S. Navy)
NAPLES, Italy — The first of four U.S. Navy destroyers to form the centerpiece of Europe’s missile defense shield arrived in southern Spain on Tuesday.
The USS Donald Cook, an Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyer formerly stationed in Norfolk, Va., pulled into the U.S. Navy base in Rota around noon, according to a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa in Naples. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, U.S. Ambassador James Costos and NAVEUR-AF commanding officer Adm. Bruce W. Clingan, were among those gathered to greet the ship. Spain’s top naval officer, Adm. Santiago Bolíbar Piñeiro also attended the ceremony, the spokesman said.
Plans call for the USS Donald Cook to be joined by three more Arleigh Burke-class missile-guided destroyers, which carry the Aegis weapon system, over the coming two years. All are to be stationed at the base in Rota, on the Atlantic coast north of Gibraltar.
Other pieces of the missile defense shield — known as the European Phased Adaptive Approach — include land-based Aegis interceptor batteries in Romania and Poland, radar in Turkey and a command center at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany.
The plan has caused a major rift with Russia, which says the shield is aimed against its own nuclear missile arsenal. The U.S. and its NATO allies insist the defense system is meant to protect Europe from potentially hostile countries in the region, such as Iran.
The destroyer detachment expands the Navy presence in Europe at a time when other services are drawing down across the continent. It follows the Navy’s current emphasis on forward deployment, or having ships stationed closer to areas of interest.
U.S. interest in the Mediterranean has risen in recent years because of conflicts and instability across the region, from Syria to Egypt and North Africa. The Mediterranean is also a significant waterway for commercial shipping and an access point to Middle Eastern waters from the Atlantic.
The ships will make regular four-month deployments around the Mediterranean basin. In addition to operations related to missile defense, they will be available for other maritime security operations, bilateral and multilateral training exercises, and other NATO deployments, according to the Navy.
The three destroyers to join the Donald Cook in the coming years are the USS Ross and USS Porter from Norfolk, Va., and the USS Carney from Mayport, Fla. Destroyer Squadron 60 in Rota will control the four ships.
The ships will add roughly 1,200 sailors and personnel, and about 1,800 family members, to Rota, a former submarine base. Many of the newcomers will arrive in the summer, base officials said.
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