“Air defense land destroyer”. Defense Express reported details about the anti-missile defense base in Poland 900 km from Ukraine

< p>The Aegis Ashore anti-missile defense base, which, according to the statements of the Polish authorities, should soon become operational in Redzikovo (900 km from the border with Ukraine) — a kind of "long-haul", according to the material of the Defense Express portal.

According to experts, the base can be figuratively called a “ground air defense destroyer”, since its configuration literally consists of elements of the destroyers of the Arleigh Burke project, in particular the Aegis fire control system, SPY-1 radar, Mark 41 vertical launchers for the SM-3 family of interceptor missiles .

These rockets — the main armament of Aegis Ashore and have the following basic characteristics: launch weight and hull length — 1.5 tons and 6.55 meters, respectively, the range and height of defeat for the basic version of Block I A/B — 900−1200 km and 500 km, respectively (cost of SM-3 in the range from $11 to $25 million per unit).

As noted in Defense Express, The Pentagon is still purchasing SM-3 in Block IIA variant only 12 units per year (and this rate is foreseen until 2029). At the same time, purchase of SM-3 in the Block IB option has been stopped altogether, although earlier the US military had discussed a plan to order 43 such missiles per year.

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Another one detail that should be paid attention to — The statement made on October 13 by the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry, Radoslaw Sikorski, about putting the base in Redzikovo into operation is formally the third.

The US Navy Command made the first announcement about the launch of this facility in December 2023. The second was made in July 2024 by the then Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, and then it was about    readiness to carry out tasks within the framework of the Alliance».

Accordingly, in history with the anti-missile defense base in Poland's Redzikovo, there are still many unresolved technical and bureaucratic issues, not to mention the issue of the available number of SM-3 anti-missile missiles as the Aegis Ashore base weapon, Defense Express concluded.

Anti-missile defense base in Poland — what is known

The readiness of the Redzikovo base was announced based on the results of the July NATO summit in Washington, the PAP agency reported. Then former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the base, which is an element of the anti-missile shield of the Alliance, is ready to perform the mission.

At the end of August, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav  Sikorsky stated that his country should shoot down Russian missiles that are in the airspace over Ukraine.