Latest news with #GuamDefenseSystem
Business Insider
18-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Granite JV awarded $158M Guam defense system project
Granite (GVA) announced that its joint venture with Obayashi Corporation has received a federally funded $158M task order from the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. The project, issued under the Facilities and Infrastructure Multiple Award Construction Contract, involves the construction of the Missile Defense Agency P694-2 PDI: Guam Defense System, Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense, Phase 1, in South Finegayan. The award will be reflected in Granite's third-quarter CAP. Construction is scheduled to begin in late July 2025 and is expected to be completed by July 2028. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week.
Business Insider
14-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Air defenders like the Patriot soldiers who shot down Iranian missiles are becoming a 'new tip of the spear,' Army secretary says
Air defenders are becoming some of the US Army's most in-demand soldiers, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said. After Patriot crews intercepted Iran's missile attack on a US base in Qatar last month, Driscoll said that air defenders are in some ways becoming the Army's "new tip of the spear," a phrase that is typically used for troops like special operators. In a recent interview with Business Insider, Driscoll and Gen. James Rainey, the commanding general overseeing Army Futures Command, said Army leadership has seen a strong demand signal in recent conflicts. Integrated air and missile defenses are " one of the most demanded and deployed capabilities we as an Army have," the Army secretary said. "We have been stressing those units for a long time." He added that the demand signal will only increase, noting that Army leadership "likes to refer to them as, in some ways, the new tip of the spear." The phrase often refers to elite, forward-deployed forces, like special operations forces like the Green Berets, Delta Force, or Rangers, because these forces are often deployed ahead of conventional forces and lead operations or shape the battlefield for strategic impact. It is not typically applied to defensive assets. Air and missile defenses are critical for blunting strikes and threatening enemy airpower. Recruiting more soldiers for air defense battalions in 2026 and fielding additional Patriots and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems are priorities for the Army. A need for more Patriots The Army has 15 Patriot battalions, Gen. James Mingus, vice chief of staff of the Army, said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event last week, although one is undergoing a major revamp. Three are deployed to the Indo-Pacific and one is in Europe. One Patriot in US Central Command has been there, Mingus said, for close to 500 days. The rest are service retained, or unassigned. Mingus described the Patriot battalions as "a very stressed force element," and said the Army was aware it had to grow its number of systems, with plans to increase to 18 battalions, not including one going to Guam as part of the Guam Defense System. The Army is also stockpiling munitions critical to this air defense mission. In its 2026 budget proposal, the service requested to quadruple its Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile. The Army has previously spoken about the need to increase the magazine depth for its munitions given the potential for a protracted conflict to chew through critical weapon stockpiles. Recent reporting suggested US Patriot interceptor stockpiles could be critically low. The Army's big plans to dramatically increase its stockpile include a request for $1.3 billion in extra funding. A high-risk situation could demand numerous interceptors. Recently, Patriot missile batteries were used to shield the US military's Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar from Iranian ballistic missiles launched in retaliation for US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine described the intercepts as "a lot of metal flying around." The top general said it was believed to be "the largest single Patriot engagement in US military history." The Pentagon acknowledged last week, as a satellite image showing damage at the base surfaced, that one enemy missile got through, causing "minimal damage to equipment and structures on the base." The rest of over a dozen missiles fired are said to have been intercepted. Driscoll told BI that the soldiers involved in those air defense operations demonstrated "incredible bravery and an ability to stand back and do their job under immense stress." M1M-104 Patriots are sophisticated surface-to-air missile defense platforms that long had mixed reviews but have been invaluable for Ukraine, which received the systems from the US and has been employing them against Russian missile and drone strikes. Ukraine has requested more of these systems and the interceptors, calling them critical for keeping civilian centers and cities safe. Weapons to Ukraine There's been recent confusion about whether the US intends to provide more Patriot interceptors to Ukraine. Earlier this month, the White House said a decision had been made to pause ammunition delivery to Ukraine amid concerns about American stockpiles decreasing, with reports identifying Patriots as one of the capabilities being halted, specifically much-needed interceptor missiles. The shipment had been promised by the Biden administration. Last week, President Donald Trump reversed the pause, telling reporters he didn't know who approved it. The Pentagon then said it would send additional defensive weapons to Ukraine. In an interview, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the initial decision to pause the shipment "unfortunately was mischaracterized. It was a pause pending review on a handful of specific type munitions." Trump said over the weekend that the US would be sending Patriots to Ukraine but that " the European Union is paying for it." "We're not paying anything for it, but we will send it," he said. The president didn't specify how many systems or interceptors would be included or when Ukraine might receive the weapons. Speaking at the White House Monday alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the president said that a deal was in the works to move Patriots out of NATO countries into Ukraine. The US would then backfill the lost capability. "A couple of the countries that have Patriots are going to swap over, and we'll replace the Patriots," Trump said. Patriots are made by US defense firms RTX and Lockheed Martin, both of which are working to expand essential production.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pentagon ends new radar effort meant for Guam missile defense
Early this year, the Pentagon issued a memo halting development of a new radar meant to protect Guam from high-end air and missile threats, according to a May 22 Government Accountability Office report on the effort to protect the strategic island in the Pacific. 'On January 7, 2025, the Deputy Secretary of Defense [Kathleen Hicks] directed the [Missile Defense Agency] to cease development of one of the elements, the AN/TPY-6 radar, but to retain the currently fielded panel as an experimental asset with potential to develop for operational use within the [Guam Defense System] in the future,' the report states. While Hicks' decision came at the end of her tenure under the Biden administration, GAO notes the changes are not binding on the new administration. The Pentagon's plan to develop an elaborate air-and-missile defense architecture is beginning to take shape and will be pieced together over the coming years in order to protect Guam from increasingly complex threats emerging in China and North Korea. MDA had shipped its first AN/TPY-6 panel on a boat headed to the island last summer, planning to use it to track a threat launched from a C-17 plane in a first flight test of current capability coming together for the defense of Guam at the end of 2024. The new radar uses technology from MDA's Long-Range Discrimination Radar positioned in Alaska at Clear Space Force Base, which will have its own test next year ahead of declaring operational capability. The Guam Defense System will also rely on a variety of systems still in development, mostly within the Army. The Navy will provide technology and capability from its Aegis weapons system. The land service plans to bring to Guam currently fielded capabilities, like the Patriot system and its Integrated Battle Command System, or IBCS, that connects any sensor and shooter together on the battlefield, as well as Mid-Range Capability missile launchers, which were first fielded at the end of 2023. The Army will also incorporate Patriot's radar replacement, the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, which was just approved for production, and its Indirect Fire Protection Capability launchers, which are reaching the end of the prototyping phase. With the termination of AN/TPY-6, for now, Hicks directed the MDA prioritize remaining Aegis Guam systems development funds 'toward delivering minimum viable Aegis C2 [command and control] and datalink capabilities to enable Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) engagements off remote track from AN/TPY-2 and LTAMDS over the JTMC [Joint Track Management Capability] bridge,' according to GAO's report. The Pentagon's memo required upgrading the JTMC bridge to address all missile threats from China and achieve a Joint Tactical Integrated Fire Control capability — the future joint track architecture for Guam — 'for coordinated battle management, combat identification and electronic protection,' the report states. Those upgrades should be completed no later than 2029. The memo also directed MDA to accelerate key command-and-control integration work, including getting the Army-operated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system to work within IBCS. Guam is home to a permanent THAAD battery called Task Force Talon, which serves as the critical component for defending the island against ballistic missile threats. Additionally, the Army and MDA 'shall integrate AN/TPY-2 measurement data into IBCS no later than 2030 and achieve full integration by 2033,' the report details. The MDA has long used AN/TPY-2 radars to track ballistic missiles, but Raytheon just delivered a new version to MDA with Gallium Nitride, or GaN, which gives it the ability to track more complex threats at greater ranges like hypersonic weapons. The first new radar with GaN will go to the Army's eight THAAD battery. The radars can be used in a forward-based mode, providing cuing data to systems like the Navy's Aegis ballistic missile defense system or the Army's Patriot. It serves as the primary radar for THAAD. The Army's new LTAMDS radar, also developed by Raytheon, has GaN technology as well.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
No clear plan for supporting Guam missile defense system, GAO finds
The Defense Department has yet to develop a clear strategy to guide the construction, deployment and long-term management of the missile defense architecture it is building on Guam, the Government Accountability Office has determined. The office is concerned that without such a plan, the effort risks cost and schedule overruns and an infrastructure unready to accommodate the additional personnel required to operate the defensive shield. In a report released May 22, the government watchdog notes that while the Pentagon has set up organizations to manage the Guam Defense System and has now designated lead services for sustaining and operating it, there is no strategy to transfer responsibilities from the Missile Defense Agency to the various service leads. 'As a result, DOD risks schedule delays for the deployment of GDS [Guam Defense System] elements and incomplete plans for organization, training, personnel levels, and facilities, among other things,' the report states. The Army, which is leading the effort to establish the system on the strategic island in the Pacific, also faces hurdles to advocate for construction and installation support from the other military services well-established on Guam. And the Defense Department has yet to come up with firm numbers for personnel required to operate and sustain the system and estimates of when they might arrive, according to the report. 'Without clear personnel requirements or deployment schedules, the services will not be able to adequately plan for necessary support systems, which will reduce service personnel readiness and may exacerbate existing infrastructure,' the watchdog states. At the end of 2023, the Pentagon pointed to 2024 as critical for establishing the planned missile defense architecture on Guam. As the threat from China continues to grow, DOD pledged to deliver a foundational capability to help stave off a potential attack directed at Guam by the end of 2024. That schedule is already slipping. Guam is an island of nearly 170,000 people that sits in a vulnerable position — it is closer to Beijing than it is to Hawaii. The island plays host to a significant amount of U.S. combat power and would therefore be an attractive target for China in the event of a war in the Taiwan Strait. The Missile Defense Agency and the Army sought a combined $1.5 billion in the fiscal 2024 budget to begin preparing the island by moving assets into place and integrating capabilities. The Pentagon designated the Army in 2023 as the lead service overseeing the acquisition and execution plan for defending Guam. The current plan, according to the report, is to distribute elements of the architecture across 16 sites on the island and establish a Guam command center. The Pentagon is planning for its first deployment to begin in fiscal 2027, with final GDS elements coming in fiscal 2032. The architecture is a tall order, considering the Army's previous experience establishing a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system on Guam in 2013. The THAAD battery, known as Task Force Talon, was first deployed as expeditionary but became permanently stationed in June 2016 to defend against possible ballistic missile threats from North Korea. Over a decade later, the report points out that the Army does not have sufficient installation support for the THAAD battery and has had trouble getting approvals from the Navy for construction to support the system. The Army's status on the island leaves it without its own construction planners, forcing it to rely on other services. For example, GAO reports that the THAAD unit did not receive approval to start environmental work until January 2024 to construct a temporary maintenance facility for equipment after a typhoon hit the island in May 2023. The unit also has limited storage space for parts and has to leave some parts outside unprotected, resulting in continuous corrosion issues. And austere conditions have resulted in 'morale challenges,' GAO found. The THAAD unit had just installed a latrine with running water and an ice machine in 2023. There is still no drinkable water at the location. The Army is going to require a much larger number of facilities to support the new missile defense architecture and wants to 'make Guam a duty station of choice,' the report states. The Army will continue to have to rely on installation support from the other services because it won't be establishing its own base on the island, GAO said. 'The Army will likely face challenges in advocating for construction priorities and coordinating installation support across multiple locations.' At the same time, the Pentagon is looking to move personnel to the island for the missile defense system. The Marine Corps is also relocating 1,700 Marines from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam. The plan is to move them all by 2029, the report notes. The agency previously reported Guam's limited housing is a concern as the Marines build up a presence there, and the Air Force and Navy both have construction priorities for their own bases that could compete for resources needed for the missile defense system's establishment. The Pentagon also struggled to determine which service would be responsible for operating and sustaining which elements of the Guam architecture. GAO indicated there were some internal disputes over the division of responsibilities for various aspects of the system. Despite the deputy secretary of defense directing the Army in June 2023 to determine how many personnel would be required for GDS within 120 days, the service did not complete the task and still had not produced a number by August 2024, according to the report. The Army told GAO it was waiting for the Pentagon to decide the lead organizations for operations and sustainment before determining personnel levels, facility needs and training plans. The Pentagon has also not established a timeline for transferring responsibility, according to the report. 'DOD has proposed multiple military services to manage GDS, which makes developing a plan for operating and sustaining GDS particularly challenging,' the report states. 'Specifically, DOD officials told us that this missile defense program will be the department's largest and most complicated, presenting communication and planning challenges among the various DOD stakeholders.' Without some prediction of personnel that will flow onto the island over what timeline, the Pentagon faces the prospect of 'deploying personnel to Guam without adequate facilities or installation support services in place, including security of sites, fire protection and emergency management at bases operated by three different military services in Guam,' according to the report. Some estimates state there will be a need for roughly 913 Army personnel in Guam by fiscal 2028, while another calculates a possible growth of 4,464 personnel by the same year. Overall, the island's population is estimated to grow from 17,917 personnel and dependents to 26,605 by fiscal 2034. In its report, GAO recommends that the Pentagon develop a strategy with a timeline for transferring responsibilities to lead organizations and services for the various elements of the architecture. The Army should also develop a 'long-term strategy' for its organization as a supported command on the island. And the defense secretary should determine personnel requirements needed for the architecture 'to allow sufficient time for completing construction of necessary support facilities on Guam,' the report states.
Time of India
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Guam missile defense system under pressure: $8 billion U.S. plan struggles with delays, leadership gaps, and China threat
Guam missile defense system is facing serious problems despite an $8 billion investment by the U.S. military. A new GAO report reveals delays, unclear leadership, and poor infrastructure planning that threaten the Pentagon's ability to defend Guam from potential Chinese missile attacks. With missing timelines, unapproved facilities, and troops relying on bottled water, the situation paints a worrying picture. The system, critical to counter China's growing missile threat, lacks a clear strategy for long-term operation. These gaps raise urgent questions about the island's readiness in case of conflict. Here's what's really going wrong behind the scenes. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Why is the Guam missile Defense system facing delays despite billions in funding? How is the army struggling to maintain current Defenses on Guam? Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads What are the logistics and housing gaps delaying deployment? Who is supposed to run the Guam missile Defense system? Is Guam ready for a potential missile conflict with China? FAQs: Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The $8 billion US missile defense plan for Guam—aimed at protecting the island from potential Chinese missile attacks—is facing serious challenges, according to a recent report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). Despite being one of the Pentagon's top defense priorities, the report reveals troubling gaps in planning, infrastructure, and long-term Pentagon's Guam Defense System (GDS) is supposed to offer a 360-degree missile shield around the island. It's a response to China's expanding missile force, especially weapons like the DF-26 "Guam Express"—a missile that can strike Guam from over 2,500 miles away. However, the GAO report, released last week, reveals the Department of Defense (DoD) still lacks a clear strategy for who will operate and sustain the system once no finalized timeline or leadership plan between the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the military services. The system is supposed to be managed across 16 sites on Guam, with installation running from 2027 to 2032, but many critical operational questions remain US Army has had trouble even with its current responsibilities on the island. For more than 10 years, Guam has hosted a THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) battery, but basic support and maintenance are lacking. Army vehicles are being repaired under tarps, and there is still no permanent facility for the THAAD system. When a typhoon hit Guam in 2023, Army units had to rely on the Marine Corps for hangar inspectors found that soldiers stationed there were drinking bottled water due to a lack of clean water access. These issues have created what the report described as 'morale challenges' for Army personnel and military operations, the Pentagon hasn't figured out how many service members will be needed, where they'll live, or how schools, medical services, and grocery stores will support them. This makes it nearly impossible to plan for training, housing, or deployment some branches have tried to estimate their needs, the lack of an overarching plan has left critical infrastructure and personnel decisions in limbo. The Army is currently waiting for clarity before it can move forward with essential logistics.A major issue is the unclear chain of command. The GAO report says the Pentagon hasn't defined which military branch or agency will lead the Guam Defense System. Some responsibilities are shared between services, while others might fall to the Missile Defense confusion could lead to duplication, delays, or gaps in operations when the system goes live. Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, who oversees the GDS project, told the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee earlier this month that the project will cost around $8 People's Liberation Army Rocket Force has thousands of missiles, many aimed at deterring or disabling US bases in the Indo-Pacific region. Guam—home to key US airfields and submarines—would likely be one of the first targets in a conflict. Experts warn that the US could face an unprecedented missile threat if war were to break out with the Guam Defense System is meant to address this risk, the lack of a clear operating plan, insufficient infrastructure, and poor conditions for current troops suggest that Guam is far from US military's efforts to build a strong missile defense for Guam are urgent, especially as threats from China grow. But without answers on who's in charge, how many troops are needed, and where they'll live and work, the system is far from battle-ready. If the Pentagon doesn't address these gaps soon, Guam may remain a vulnerable target—despite the billions already being system lacks leadership, planning, and support despite $8 billion hosts key US bases and is within range of China's DF-26 missiles.
