The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

NATO’s decision today to back plans to build a missile defense system in Europe is a huge victory for U.S. security.

With Iran continuing to enrich uranium, the possibility of “loose nukes” in Pakistan, and a spate of ballistic missile tests (by Russia, China and Iran, among others) over the past year, the announcement good news. A comprehensive missile defense system offers protection to America, its forward deployed troops, and its allies. Hosting a transatlantic missile defense system will deepen, and further unify, the security relationship between European NATO members, especially Poland and the Czech Republic, and the United States, enhancing our mutual national security against external threats from ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction.