In accordance with NATO decisions and with the U.S. - Romanian bilateral agreement, the Aegis Ashore missile defense system deployed at the 99th Military Base at Deveselu will undergo a previously planned updating process in the upcoming period.

The update of the Aegis Ashore elements deployed at Deveselu is similar and complement updates conducted so far on other U.S. Aegis systems. The updating process will not add any offensive elements to the system and will not change its pure defensive nature.

These updates were planned as early as September 2009, when the calendar for the implementation of the U.S. missile defense system in Europe was announced, in a new, phased adaptive approach (EPAA / European Phased, Adaptive Approach to Ballistic Missile Defense).

In the timeframe planned for the completion of updating work at Deveselu, which will last a few weeks, NATO will ensure an alternative ballistic missile defense capability by deploying a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Air Defence (THAAD) missile defense system to our country.

THAAD is a defensive system which will be included in the architecture of allied missile defense capabilities and, similarly to the Aegis Ashore system, it will be under the operational control of NATO and the full political control of the North Atlantic Council.

The deployment of the THAAD defensive system to Romania will be temporary. The plan is to keep the system operational only until the update of the Aegis Ashore missile defense work is completed.

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At the 2010 NATO Summit in Lisbon, the Alliance decided to develop a ballistic missile defense capability in order to protect its territories, populations and forces in Europe.

The Aegis Ashore system in Romania is a component of the NATO missile defense system, under the operational control of Allied military authorities.

The Aegis Ashore system deployed to Deveselu is a key element of the NATO ballistic missile defense system (NATO BMD), which is preeminently defensive in nature, with the capacity to launch only defensive interceptors. The defensive nature of this system is confirmed by the U.S. - Romanian Agreement, by U.S. commitments to NATO, and by the Alliance's statements in this regard.

The THAAD defensive system that will be temporarily deployed to Romania as part of the NATO ballistic missile defense capability will have the same goal as the Aegis Ashore system, i.e. to defend NATO's population, forces and territory in Europe against ballistic missile threats originating from outside the Euro-Atlantic space.

The Press Office