“The United States has no plans to permanently deploy Aegis missile defense capabilities in the Black Sea,” Rose said at an Atlantic Council conference on missile defense.
The Aegis system is the command and control as well as weapons control component of ballistic missile defense. The system identifies and tracks targets for destruction using advanced computers and radars.
The Montreux Convention, governing passage through the Turkish Straits, limits warships from non-Black Sea states to 21 days in the Black Sea.
“We follow the Montreux Convention which prohibits us from deploying things on a permanent basis,” Rose said. “But if contingencies required, we have the capability to send Aegis ballistic missile defense capable ships into the Black Sea.”
The US has temporarily sent Aegis warships into the Black Sea on multiple occasions.
The United States plans to have a land-based Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Romania by the end of 2015.
Moscow has repeatedly raised opposition to US proliferation of missile defense systems near its border, claiming it represents a threat to Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrent. US and NATO officials say that the system is not aimed at countering a Russian threat.
The BMD systems were previously limited under the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty between the US and Russia to avoid a strategic imbalance. The United States backed out of that treaty in 2001.
