Coordination among NATO Allied countries is crucial to combat a part of the war with Iran. The Turkish base of Incirlink, just a few kilometers from Adana, has become the prime example of this. This enclave is targeted by Iranian missiles, and coordination among the allies present at the base is essential to prevent incidents. This month, the downing of three missiles has been reported, but as confirmed by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, this Monday, "launches are daily."
The Patriot battery deployed by Spain in Turkey provided the necessary information for shooting down those missiles. They were brought down thanks to NATO. It is now known that it was the destroyer Oscar Austin, stationed at the naval base in Rota, that fired the shot to bring down the missile.
The Incirlink air base, where the Patriot battery operates, is a military site of the Turkish army from where the 10th Wing of the US Air Force operates. As confirmed by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, during a visit to the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Command, "it is a battery that is currently performing a very difficult, essential task." As described, "the number of shots is very significant, there is a very high average daily," which is why the 140 military personnel stationed at Incirlink are "working 24 hours" and "the situation concerns them, it is not easy and it can become entrenched."
The reason is that this conflict has confirmed that "Tehran's ability to build missiles and drones" is one of its strengths during the war. A scenario that causes "the level of launches that occur daily is very high, and obviously many are intercepted," the minister explained. Robles emphasized that "there is still a very significant missile capability, so the work of the battery is important, which has been reinforced with other batteries from other countries and ships in the area with anti-aircraft defenses."
This ship refers to the Oscar Austin, a missile destroyer of the Arleigh Burke class docked at pier 1 of the Rota naval base. It arrived in October 2024 as the fifth ship of its class to reach the Spanish base following the agreement signed between Margarita Robles and the US Ambassador, Julissa Reynoso, to increase the number of destroyers in Rota by two.
Two destroyers departed from the Cadiz base to the Eastern Mediterranean before the offensive on the 28th that marked the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, which is still ongoing in the area. Although Spain has refused to participate in this war, the Rota base is where the two destroyers are stationed, and they have not yet returned; and from the Morón base, there was a constant movement of aircraft -mainly tankers and aerial refueling aircraft- in the early days of the war. That is why Robles has stated that the withdrawal of the United States from the bases is "a scenario we do not contemplate" and has insisted that "there is no evidence of it."
Additionally, the minister has been very critical of the US President, Donald Trump, stating: "He has dragged us all into a war that makes no sense, we must demand that this war ends now. There is a huge risk that the situation will become entrenched, we believe that anything that does not lead to de-escalation is a major concern."