The proliferation of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles contributes to a dangerous threat environment today. These threats are not concentrated in any one area but range from the Russia-Ukraine conflict to the Middle East and the Asia Pacific. In the past two decades, expensive but effective integrated air and missile defense systems like Patriot, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), Aegis Ashore or at sea, Arrow, and Iron Dome, just to name a few, have been deployed around the world.
All of these systems are necessary, but none is sufficient to address the holistic nature of the threat. One need only look at the two recent and massive strikes by Iran on Israel (April and October 2024) to realize that it is only a matter of time before any modern nation’s air defenses could be overwhelmed by a swarm of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones. In fact, harkening back to the Reagan era concept of “Star Wars,” President Trump recently declared that his administration would champion a $175 billion “Golden Dome” project to create an impervious shield of air defense for the United States before the end of his term – an extremely costly and lofty goal that some pundits have proclaimed to be unachievable. In the meantime, what are we to do?
We must move forward with deliberate measures to provide collective solutions to the problem of ballistic missile defense. One such effort is the continuation of Exercise Formidable Shield which just celebrated its tenth anniversary in May 2025. A collaboration of the US Sixth Fleet in Naples, the NATO Striking and Support Forces in Lisbon, the US Missile Defense Agency at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and the European Maritime Theater Missile Defense Forum, this exercise brings together allies and partners to test and employ their integrated air and missile defense systems in a live-fire demonstration at sea.
The “big idea” for the inaugural Exercise Formidable Shield in 2015 was to launch one of the most sophisticated ballistic missile interceptors in the world—the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) from a US Aegis-class destroyer against a ballistic missile target on the instrumented Hebrides range off the coast of Scotland. The SM-3 gained notoriety when the US shot down one of its own National Reconnaissance Office satellites during Operation Burnt Frost in 2008 before it posed a hazmat threat to the homeland upon re-entry in the earth’s atmosphere.
While the United States Navy had conducted several SM-3 test shots in the Pacific, until 2015, it had never done so in the European theater. This exercise was a proof of concept for the US role in the ballistic missile defense of Europe, called the European Phased Adaptive Approach. Four US Aegis-class destroyers arrived as forward deployed forces in Rota, Spain, and the construction of Aegis Ashore facilities in Deveselu, Romania and later Redzikowo, Poland.
There is nothing simple about a ballistic missile intercept at Mach speed in the upper tier of space (greater than 100 miles into space) with a kinetic only (non-explosive) warhead. It’s like an outbound bullet hitting an inbound bullet. To make it even more challenging, the scenario allowed the high value unit that launched the SM-3 interceptor to come under attack by opposing warships of the red cell. Friendly forces had to detect, track, and destroy incoming cruise missiles that threatened the high value unit and the mission.
A secondary goal of the exercise was to encourage allies and partners to join the Maritime Theater Missile Defense Forum and do more to support their own ballistic missile defense. In other words, the US Navy’s goal was to put itself out of business through the European Phased Adaptive Approach, and turn the mission over to our European allies. After over a year’s worth of planning and a month at sea, it was a smashing success.
The big question after the conclusion of the first exercise was, will we do it again? With the overwhelming support of and high demand from allies and partners and the continued threat of the proliferation of ballistic missiles, it was determined that Formidable Shield would happen on a biennial basis. With each subsequent demonstration, the scenarios became more complex, the number of missiles shot and targets destroyed increased and the number of participants grew over time. Formidable Shield 2025 was no exception.
Throughout May, the demonstration at sea of Formidable Shield 2025 was planned by the US 6th Fleet and executed by Combined Task Force 64 and the Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO. It was the largest ever at-sea live-fire demonstration in the European theater. There were 11 participating nations contributing a record 6,900 personnel this year, including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the UK, and the US. Australia also participated this year by providing a radar sensor for data collection and evaluation. NATO allies and partners successfully conducted 45 live-fire events.
Formidable Shield 2025 included several firsts. It’s no longer an exclusive maritime forces event, with the participation of the US Air Force 147th Attack Wing and US Army Air and Missile Defense Command. Along those lines, the next iteration of the exercise should incorporate elements of US and allied Cyber and Space Commands in order to take full advantage of the tools required in a multi-domain joint force operation. Additionally, unlike the past whereby the serials and events were all confined to a single range, this year’s exercise started on the firing range in Andøya, Norway before continuing to the Hebrides Range in Scotland. Finally, NATO’s Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft forward deployed to Ørland in Norway to provide command and control capabilities for the exercise.
Not every scenario was perfect this year and thus we must continue to adapt and train. However, one of the biggest takeaways was the commitment and resolve of the allies, a message not lost on our adversaries.
The proliferation of long, medium and short-range ballistic missiles has captured our collective attention. Whether it be from the Houthis, Iran, North Korea, Russia, or the highly developed and sophisticated rocketry from the People’s Republic of China, we all face the same threat. We must not only continue to participate in live-fire demonstrations like Formidable Shield but also collaborate in research and development of new integrated air and missile defense systems that can be shared for the common good. Only in that way can we be stronger together.
