NATO conducts first 'smart defense' exercise
On October 15, eight North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries sent warships to participate in live-fire missile defense exercises in the area near Scotland.
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| USS Donald Cook. (Source: wikipedia.org) |
The US Department of Defense announced that Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and the US participated in a defense exercise to intercept two medium-range missiles and three anti-ship cruise missiles.
The US Navy's USS Donald Cook successfully intercepted a medium-range missile with a Standard Missile-3 Block IB guided missile.
Meanwhile, Spanish and Dutch ships practiced countering anti-ship cruise missiles.
The Pentagon said this was the first time NATO had practiced "smart defense," in which warships tasked with intercepting ballistic missiles would be protected by other ships.
The exercise, called Fierce Shield, is taking place at the UK Ministry of Defence's Hebrides training ground in western Scotland and is scheduled to last from September 24 to October 18.
The parties plan to hold this exercise every two years, with the aim of reassuring allies, warning enemies and demonstrating the US commitment to NATO's collective defense mechanism.
In addition, on this occasion, the US Missile Defense Agency successfully test-fired a Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) from the USS McFaul. This test was not part of the exercise./.
According to Vietnam+
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