Missile Defenders Trained, Ready for Deployment, General Says
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2013 – Missile defenders preparing for the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense System to Guam are ready for the mission, the Army general at their home station reported, noting his full confidence in the ability of U.S. air defense systems to protect against North Korean missiles.
/snip/
The Defense Department announced earlier this week its plans to deploy a THAAD system to Guam as a precautionary move to strengthen the regional defense posture against the North Korean regional ballistic missile threat.
All three of the Army’s THAAD batteries, part of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, are based at Fort Bliss. The THAAD system is a land-based missile defense system that includes a truck-mounted launcher, a complement of interceptor missiles, an AN/TPY-2 tracking radar and an integrated fire control system.
Once deployed, the THAAD system will work in tandem with other missile defense systems in the region to provide multi-tiered protection, Pittard explained. Aegis cruisers and other air defense systems will provide lower-level coverage. Patriot missiles and other systems will provide defenses at slightly higher altitudes.
/snip/
The THAAD deployment will strengthen defense capabilities for American citizens in the U.S. territory of Guam and U.S. forces stationed there, the Defense Department said in an April 3 news release announcing the deployment that’s expected in the coming weeks.
Full article HERE from Global Security.
Of interest, there are ONLY three of these systems in existence that are actually deployable, and note the last sentence, ‘expected’ to deploy in the coming weeks… How? There will have to be a massive reshuffle of lift capability to get them there, and a couple of weeks may be too late…
At least a couple of BMD capable ships are loitering on 24/7 alert and just for clarification, they CAN also shoot down a missile or ‘other’ object in the terminal phase, as exhibited a couple of years ago off Hawaii, when USS LAKE ERIE shot down a Russian Satellite with a nuclear power plant in a decaying orbit with ONE SM-3…
But those ships were pulled from other duties, and due to sequestration, backfill is going to be slow to non-existent in the near term…



