Latest news with #TerminalHighAltitudeAreaDefense
Yahoo
3 days ago
- 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.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
RTX delivers first radar to MDA that can track hypersonic weapons
Raytheon has delivered the first missile defense radar to the Missile Defense Agency upgraded with the capability to track hypersonic weapons, the company announced Monday. The MDA has long used AN/TPY-2 radars to track ballistic missiles, but this new version features a Gallium Nitride, or GaN, populated array, Raytheon said. The new AN/TPY-2 X-band radar is the 13th system to be delivered to the agency but the first with the technology. It will be a part of the U.S. Army's eighth Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery. The radars can be used in a forward-based mode, providing cuing data to systems like the U.S. Navy's Aegis ballistic missile defense system or the Army's Patriot missile defense system. It serves as the primary radar for the Army's THAAD system. GaN is technology already integrated into the Army's Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense System radar, which was approved for low-rate production last month and will serve as the new tracking sensor for the Patriot air-and-missile defense system. Raytheon has its own GaN foundry in Andover, Massachusetts, and has worked to develop the capability over decades that allows the radar to run 'at twice the power that we had before,' John Norman, company vice president of requirements and capabilities for Raytheon Air and Space Defense Systems, told Defense News. 'You have twice the sensitivity, twice the range. It's just incredibly efficient,' he said. 'Now we're able to see those targets coming in, to be able to discriminate.' GaN allows for greater fidelity to see when a warhead separates from a missile body, as well as whether there are decoys present. 'You're going to have much greater target specificity,' Norman added. Hypersonic threats fly at speeds greater than Mach 5 and are maneuverable in the glide phase of flight, making them very difficult to track. This means it's important to defeat hypersonic weapons earlier in flight at greater ranges. The new radar is 'going to enable them to fire at those targets earlier in the engagement cycle,' Norman said. The technology also has a longer time in between failures or maintenance needs. 'This is just operational more often,' Norman said. 'That resolves like 90% of the angst that we had doing that mission set because the missiles are always there, the firing batteries are always there, but it's having the sensors to make sure you have the coverage of the area you're trying to defend.' While MDA is the first U.S. entity to receive the AN/TPY-2 radar with GaN, Saudi Arabia was the first to receive the upgraded version, according to Norman. Raytheon is now working with the Army on how to take advantage of the company's investments to upgrade the systems it has in operation. They're also trying to address other modernization needs, such as integrating new computer components and signal data processing equipment to free up space in the electronics unit, which will make sustainment and maintenance easier, according to Norman.
Newsweek
20-05-2025
- Science
- Newsweek
US Military Receives Major Boost Against Hypersonic Missiles
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The United States military has received an upgraded Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) radar, capable of tracking hypersonic missiles. Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Missile Defense Agency for further comment by email. Why It Matters A hypersonic weapon is defined as one capable of flying at Mach 5 or faster—over five times the speed of sound. Unlike ballistic missiles, which travel on a predictable trajectory, this type of "superfast" weapon can maneuver in flight, making it difficult to intercept. Both China and Russia have put hypersonic weapons into service, while North Korea and Iran claim to have developed and tested similar systems. In late March, the U.S. conducted a missile defense test by firing a simulated interceptor at a hypersonic target over the Pacific. The delivery of the upgraded THAAD AN/TPY-2 radar to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency comes as Washington pushes for an American version of Israel's Iron Dome air defense system—also known as the "Golden Dome"—to defend against current and future aerial threats. What To Know Raytheon, the U.S. defense contractor that manufactures the AN/TPY-2 radar, announced the delivery on Monday. The radar can detect, track, and discriminate ballistic missiles in multiple phases of flight to defend the U.S. and allies, the company stated. An AN/TPY-2 radar is positioned in the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands during a flight test on August 11, 2012. An AN/TPY-2 radar is positioned in the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands during a flight test on August 11, 2012. U.S. Missile Defense Agency While this is the 13th AN/TPY-2 radar handed over to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, it is the first with a complete Gallium Nitride populated array, providing greater sensitivity to increase range, expanding surveillance capacity and supporting hypersonic defense missions. The new radar can "see things twice as far," Jon Norman, vice president for Air and Space Defense Systems Requirements and Capabilities at Raytheon, told the specialist outlet Breaking Defense. The radar's original version has an estimated range of over 1,800 miles. A longer detection range allows earlier decisions to be made on the type of interceptor needed to destroy a target, he said, adding that interceptors can be launched by THAAD as well as other missile defense systems, including the Standard Missile and the Patriot. Regarding its hypersonic defense capability, Norman claimed that the upgraded radar can now detect what he called "very small targets" when a missile's booster separates from its warhead after launch. "We can hit it before it starts maneuvering," he told Breaking Defense. In addition, the radar can detect and track targets more clearly and distinguish between a threat and non-threatening objects, like separation debris, Raytheon explained in a press release. According to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, two foreign countries—the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia—have procured the THAAD system. The United Arab Emirates carried out the first combat intercept by THAAD, intercepting ballistic missiles in 2022. A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor launcher sits in position at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam on February 5, 2019. A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor launcher sits in position at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam on February 5, 2019. Capt. Adan Cazarez/U.S. Army What People Are Saying Sam Deneke, president of Air and Space Defense Systems at Raytheon, said: "This is the most advanced version of AN/TPY-2 that Raytheon has built, leveraging years of investment and innovation to produce superior capability at a lower cost to the U.S. armed forces…As demand increases for missile defense of the homeland, the AN/TPY-2 radar is ready to meet the mission." The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said: "The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) element provides the Missile Defense System with a globally-transportable, rapidly-deployable capability to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles inside or outside the atmosphere during their final, or terminal, phase of flight." What Happens Next It remains to be seen whether the enhanced AN/TPY-2 radar will be deployed at overseas locations. The U.S. military has stationed earlier versions of the missile defense radar in Turkey, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Guam, according to the specialist outlet The War Zone.
![[Editorial] Absurd clause](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fall-logos-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fkoreaherald.com.png&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Korea Herald
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
[Editorial] Absurd clause
Chinese seek THAAD, USFK secrets through Korean soldier; criminal law revision needed The full story of an apparent Chinese espionage maneuver to obtain military secrets through a South Korean active duty soldier was revealed Monday. A Chinese national was indicted last month in connection with the case. The indictment, secured by the office of Joo Jin-woo, a National Assembly member of the ruling People Power Party, was disclosed to the media on Tuesday. According to the indictment, the Defense Counterintelligence Command caught the man trying to get USBs containing sensitive military information from the soldier on Jeju Island in March. The man was a contact working for another Chinese national who runs a team affiliated with an intelligence department of the Chinese military. The soldier leaked 21 military secrets to the Chinese intelligence agent and received around 50 million won ($35,000) in return. The Chinese military intelligence agency was found to have sought data on the US missile defense system in South Korea, known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, guidelines on nuclear operations and operation plans involving US forces in Korea. The incident causes concern in that the military, the last bastion of South Korea's national security, has been penetrated by a foreign intelligence organization. In recent months, Chinese nationals were caught illegally photographing military and intelligence facilities in South Korea. In June last year, a US aircraft carrier berthed at Busan for a joint drill was video recorded from a nearby hill. Three Chinese students were arrested for flying a drone to do so. In November last year, the Seoul building of the National Intelligence Service was photographed by a Chinese sightseer, who flew a drone over the no-flying zone. In January, the whole view of the Jeju International Airport was video recorded by an unauthorized drone. A Chinese tourist flew it. The Jeju International Airport could be converted into a military base in an emergency. In March, fighters on Suwon Air Base were pictured. Two Chinese teenagers were caught. They also photographed Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, which is used by both South Korean and US forces. They reportedly told police that the photography was part of their hobby, but their argument doesn't sound believable. According to the NIS briefing to related lawmakers late last month, 11 incidents of unauthorized photographing of major facilities in South Korea by Chinese nationals have occured since June last year. But foreign nationals who spy on South Korea cannot be accused of espionage even if indisputable evidence is found. Article 98 of the current criminal law punishes espionage activities "only for an enemy country." An enemy country here means North Korea. Due to this provision, the Chinese national indicted for obtaining military secrets from the active duty soldier will be punished if convicted on charges of violating the Military Secrets Protection Act. Espionage will not be applied. The same goes for the Chinese nationals who photographed military bases and other facilities illegally. Sentences under the Military Secret Protection Act are lighter than those given for espionage. The provision in question was made when the criminal law was first enacted on Sept. 18, 1953, shortly after the Korean War ended in truce. The clause has not been revised since. Seventy two years have passed. The Cold War ended. The concept of an enemy country and patterns of espionage have changed. Intelligence operations have become elaborate and extensive. Last year, ruling and main opposition parties pushed to revise the criminal law to expand the concept of an enemy country to include foreign countries. At first, the opposition Democratic Party of Korea did not oppose revising the law, but abruptly shifted its ground. The bill was stopped in the plenary session of the legislation and judiciary committee. The party reportedly cites the possibility of abusing the revised clause. The US, Japan, China and most other countries punish spies on espionage charges regardless of their nationality. Espionage is a nonpartisan matter. It is directly related to the existence of South Korea. The current article is unrealistic and absurd by any measure.
Saudi Gazette
11-05-2025
- Business
- Saudi Gazette
Saudi firm completes first locally produced THAAD components with Lockheed Martin
JEDDAH — Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control President Tim Cahill, General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) Assistant Deputy Nawaf Albawardi, and Arabian International Company for Steel Structures (AIC) President Wasim Attieh recently met at AIC's Jeddah facility to mark the completion of the first locally manufactured components for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launcher. The milestone reflects a growing collaboration between AIC and Lockheed Martin, aimed at advancing Saudi Arabia's defense manufacturing capabilities. The locally produced components were developed through precision welding and advanced manufacturing techniques, reinforcing both the Kingdom's defense industrial base and the U.S. supply chain by establishing a second source of production. 'This is a tremendous milestone for the United States of America and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as our nations work to fulfill the Kingdom's THAAD procurement,' said Tim Cahill. 'Through this program, we're not only supporting Saudi Vision 2030 and enhancing regional defense capacity, but we're also generating high-quality manufacturing jobs in the United States and strengthening the American defense industrial base.' AIC Steel President Wasim Attieh praised the collaboration, saying, 'Lockheed Martin has been an excellent partner in providing the tools and training necessary to prepare and ultimately advance the localized production of such a major component of the THAAD Weapon System. I look forward to working together to ensure a more secure future for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.' He also acknowledged GAMI's support throughout the project. THAAD is a combat-proven missile defense system designed to intercept short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles both inside and outside the earth's atmosphere. Its operational readiness, flight test success, and proven performance continue to draw international interest. — SG
