Dear Members and Friends,

We were in Hawaii this week advocating, educating, and leading the public charge to close on and eliminate the missile defense gap in the Pacific and in the ballistic missile defense of the Hawaiian Islands from North Korea. (Link to the front page news at the Honolulu Star Advertiser)

In the midst of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington D.C., and with President Obama meeting with the leaders of Japan, the Republic of Korea and China to find a better solution to handle North Korea’s nuclear proliferation, increasing missile defense systems in the Pacific and in Hawaii with the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Pacific Fleet contributes to assuring Japan and the Republic of Korea in keeping them from developing their own nuclear arsenals, by demonstrating the United States can protect them and itself. A weaponized, nuclear North Korea has overtly proven this year through multiple demonstrations of ballistic missile launches and tests of its nuclear weapons capability, along with statements of intent to use these weapons against the United States. North Korea today possess the greatest threat of a nuclear attack on the United States of America in its entire history of being a nation.

Two of our strongest Pacific Allies, Japan and the Republic of Korea, the U.S. Territory of Guam and the U.S. Homeland have funded and deployed persistent, operational, U.S. manned missile defense systems on their territories with layers of capability and multiple shot opportunities to defeat North Korean Ballistic Missiles. In exception, today, Hawaii does not have an active operational missile defense system deployed on its islands and relies on a limited number of 30 Ground Based Interceptors (GBI) that are deployed over 2500 miles away in Alaska and California for a one “long shot” opportunity to intercept a North Korean nuclear long range ballistic missile heading towards Hawaii.

With a very limited number of GBI interceptors, that are for the defense of the entire U.S. homeland, increasing their probability of successfully intercepting and killing an incoming ballistic missile (PK) reduces the shots required and is the most critical investment and development of the total ground-based missile defense system, that is absolutely necessary for the defense of Hawaii and the defense of the United States from North Korea.

In addition to increasing GBI inventory and modernizing the kill vehicle on top of the GBI to improve reliability and increase its probability of kill, is the development and deployment of long range discrimination sensors that can impact the probability of kill the greatest. A long range discrimination sensor can identify the correct targeting of a North Korean nuclear warhead from among a cloud of debris, countermeasures, and decoys as it expands over a few miles, traveling through space together at the same speeds before it reenters the atmosphere.

For the defense of Hawaii today, a Long-range Sea Based X Band Radar (SBX) has to be towed out of Pearl Harbor and be under the incoming debris cloud and interception point to help increase the PK of the GBIs, well before a North Korean missile is launched. In providing a more robust and persistent defense of the United States homeland, the United States Government funded the construction and deployment of a Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) in Clear Air Station, Alaska to increase the PK of the GBIs against North Korean ballistic missiles. The LRDR in its location in Alaska, due to the curvature of the earth, does not enable it to see the debris clouds of ballistic missiles heading towards Hawaii from North Korea. To mitigate some of the risk to Hawaii, the United States placed a forward-deployed discrimination radar in Japan for initial tracking and discrimination of the debris cloud, but it is soon flown over and there is a sensor gap before the SBX acquires it.

There is a sensor gap for Hawaii today, as you ideally want to always keep an “eye on the ball” in the debris cloud from start to finish to best increase PK and provide the most current targeting information to the interceptors. An ideal location for a long range discrimination sensor to defend Hawaii, besides Midway Island, which doesn’t have the infrastructure to sustain and support capability, is on the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), in Kauai on the westward island facing the west Pacific. Currently at PMRF, the United States Navy is testing its new AMDR radar that has a modular capability to build up or down and can be added or subtracted for range. There is also room at PMRF for a new, smaller version of the LRDR being placed in Alaska. Both of these options could contribute to increasing PK of the designated GBIs for the defense of Hawaii.

In addition to relying on increasing the PK of GBI interceptors launched thousands of miles away from sensors, Hawaii needs to have its own deployed second and possible third layer of missile defense shields that could provide additional shot opportunities. Hawaii has a system already deployed and paid for at PMRF that replicates exactly the same tested and proven missile defense system deployed in Romania, defending southeastern Europe and the millions of people there from Iran’s ballistic missiles. The system in Romania is linked to a forward based radar in Turkey for discrimination and has a baseline 9 capability that enables it to launch and engage off of remote sensors such as other baseline 9 Aegis BMD ships and forward based radars deployed far away from where it is located. Another Aegis Ashore site will be deployed in Poland to defend northern Europe and its population from ballistic missiles from Iran, all paid for and operated by the United States Government. In addition, a new much longer range interceptor (SM-3 2A) is being co-developed with Japan to go into the Poland Aegis Ashore site to provide, with the SM-3 1B, first and second layered defense and shot opportunities for the defense of Europe.

An Aegis Ashore site, fully paid for by US tax dollars and deployed for testing, is at PMRF permanently. It successfully intercepted an incoming ballistic missile in space using an interceptor (SM-3 1B) last December to validate the deployment of the Romania Aegis Ashore site at the end of last year for declared operational status. The Aegis Ashore site in PMRF is baseline 9 capable and can be linked to the SBX, baseline 9 Aegis ships in the Pacific, and forward based TPY-2 radars that could be deployed around Hawaii and have been deployed at PMRF to provide the sensor discrimination for a second and possible third shot opportunity against North Korean nuclear ballistic missiles in the defense of the entire Hawaiian Islands.

In 2008, the United States successfully intercepted, with a SM-3-IA interceptor from a Aegis BMD ship, a falling satellite in space going at speeds greater than an ICBM, using “engage on remote” sensor with the SBX to accurately hit and destroy a small toxic fuel tank. Today, this same capability is eight years more advanced, with much more enhanced interceptors and Baseline 9 Aegis capabilities. The United States has a remarkable Aegis BMD intercept success rate of 85% with 33 out of 40 attempts.

An operationalized layered missile defense in Hawaii defends 1.42 million Americans and the Pacific Combatant Command sending a strong message of deterrence to North Korea and changes the calculus of an attack on Hawaii. (Link to bullet points on Increasing Hawaii’s Defense Capabilities Against North Korea.)

Our President needs to fill the missile defense gap in his home state to make Hawaii and our nation safer than it is today.