October 10, 2014

From Commander, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia Public Affairs

DEVESELU, Romania – Commander, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia presided over a base establishment and assumption of command ceremony at Naval Support Facility (NSF) Deveselu, Romania, Oct. 10.

Rear Adm. John Scorby, Commander, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia, was the guest speaker at the ceremony.

"Today's ceremony is an important milestone as we improve our ballistic missile defense capability in Europe," Scorby said. "Our continued close work with our Romanian partners exemplifies how crucial our European allies are to building up NATO's overall ballistic missile defense system."

It follows the October 2013 ground breaking with United States and Romania which marked the official start of the on-site construction. NSF Deveselu is expected to be fully operational in late 2015.

Capt. Bill Garren assumed duties as the first Commanding Officer of NSF Deveselu.

"It's an honor to be here and have the opportunity to work with this international team of dedicated professional who are building the future of ballistic missile defense in Europe," said Garren. “We have a lot of work ahead of us but our future success rests on the shoulders of this outstanding United States/Romania team. So, we have all we need to excel.”

The land-based ballistic missile defense system in Romania will be almost identical to that used on Navy Aegis-capable guided-missile destroyers and cruisers. It's designed to detect, track, engage and destroy ballistic missiles in flight.

NSF Deveselu sits on about 430 acres. The site 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 SM-3 missiles and be staffed by about 200 U.S. military personnel, government civilians and support contractors.

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IZAKOVIC