U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Jon Hill, director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), visited the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System (AAMDS) site in Poland and has reviewed the construction status.

Capt. Jon Grant, commanding officer of Naval Support Facility (NSF) Redzikowo, hosted Hill and his team from MDA to show progress being made at the new U.S. anti-missile station outside the town of Redzikowo. Hill and his team visited the multipurpose and housing facility, the galley and the inside of the Aegis Ashore “deckhouse.”

Currently, the U.S. missile shield site in Poland is nearing the final phases of construction at Naval Support Facility (NSF) Redzikowo, the Navy’s newest installation. Once construction is completed, the Aegis Ashore site in Poland will expand a defensive capability that protects NATO European territories, populations and forces against ballistic missiles launched from outside the Euro-Atlantic region.

The first Aegis Ashore site was established at Deveselu, Romania in 2016 as part of the European Phased Adaptive Approach announced by the Obama administration in 2009. Aegis Ashore uses a defensive system almost identical to that used on U.S. Navy Aegis-capable guided-missile destroyers and cruisers at sea.

The system is designed to detect, track, engage and destroy ballistic missiles in flight. The complex at Redzikowo will consist of a fire-control radar “deckhouse” with an associated Aegis command, control and communications suite. Separately, it will house several launch modules containing Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors.