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Islands in the Stream

August 5, 2021
The Hawaiian Island Stream (Photo Credit: NASA)
The Defense of Hawaii is a component of the Defense of the United States Homeland. Strengthening the Defense of Hawaii, Strengthens the Defense of the United States Homeland. A strong, effective Defense of Hawaii enhances deterrence against our foes and assures our Pacific allies and partners. Thus changing the calculus of those nations on the Pacific that would seek to change the status quo and by intimidation, coercion and force.

The Hawaii Homeland Defense Radar (HHD-R) is being funded by Congress against the wishes of two different Administrations who chose not to fund it, in order to more effectively defend United States Homeland from Ballistic Missile threats. The Radar is to be built and operationally deployed on the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the Island of Kauai, Hawaii. The Radar will provide discrimination targeting for the 40 ground-based interceptors in Fort Greely, Alaska in order to defend Hawaii. The Radar will provide Space Awareness and add sensor capabilities to the Pacific Range Test Facility. This radar could be operated by the National Guard duplicating the Guard’s similar mission and operations with the Long Range Discrimination Radar in Clear Air Base, Alaska. Both of these radars will eventually be transferred over to U.S. Space Force and could eventually be under a National Guard Space Force for operations.

Guam, United States territory with 170,000 American citizens should be treated by Congress in a manner similar to Hawaii. To not do so sends a contradictory message to both our allies and adversaries in the Pacific demonstrating an inconsistent deterrence posture for U.S. islands in the Pacific. Resourcing the defense of Guam is absolutely necessary to change the current calculus of the Chinese who view Guam as different than Hawaii and the United States. The future of Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the first and second island chains is dependent on the United States consistency in its defense of Guam and Hawaii.  

In order to develop, test, and man these defense capabilities, the United States should have a reliable schoolhouse to train a new cross-domain, joint missile defense architecture for the servicemembers who have the mission of missile defense of the United States Homeland. The United States National Guard is already responsible for manning and operating the U.S. Homeland Missile Defense Systems in Washington D.C. Capital Region for Cruise Missile Defense and in Alaska, California, and Colorado for the Ballistic Missile Defense of the United States. The National Guard of Hawaii and the National Guard of Guam is the logical choice for operating missile defense systems and sensors located in Hawaii and Guam. Hawaii and PMRF should logically house the training for these Missile Defense Operators of Guam and Hawaii.

Located in the western part of the island of Kauai, the PMRF grounds were established by the U.S. Army in 1940, in Barking Sands, Kauai, and now hosts the world’s largest testing and training missile range. PMRF is made up of 42,000 square miles of controlled air space and has a long history with the testing of both offensive and defensive missile capabilities, beginning in 1956 with the Navy’s ‘Regulus 1’, a ship-and-submarine-launched, nuclear-capable, second-generation cruise missile. The first PMRF ballistic missile test was conducted at the Kauai Test Facility in 1962 when the USS Ethan Allen launched a live nuclear warhead as part of the Operation Dominic nuclear test. 1962 was also a critical year for missile defense, as the PMRF held the first interceptor tests for the Army’s ‘Nike-Zeus’ system. Since then, the Kauai Test Facility has conducted over 450 experimental launches, many of which supported technologies that are now an integral component of our national defense.

In 2007, the PMRF became an essential element of the Missile Defense Agency’s efforts to test its kinetic “hit-to-kill” technology, which has become the core foundation of our present missile defense capabilities. On January 26th of that year, the Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) was relocated from New Mexico to PMRF to conduct tests, which later became operational in the Defense of Hawaii from North Korea, in June 2009. In April 2007, the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System simultaneously destroyed both a short-range ballistic missile and a cruise missile, making it the first time that the ship-based system intercepted two different targets.

The SM-3 Block IIA launched from the USS John Finn, an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System-equipped destroyer, as part of Flight Test Aegis Weapons System-44 (FTM-44), was conducted at PMRF in November of 2020, and demonstrated the capability of intercepting an ICBM from the sea, another historic achievement at PMRF. The FTM-44 test was also a major success in that it demonstrated the ability to “Engage on Remote”, which entailed the Finn launching interceptors before its own radars saw the incoming target, and used targeting information from another Aegis ship in the area — a critical capability in improving interceptor speed.

With hypersonic missiles and missile defense being an essential component of future deterrence and warfighting doctrines, PMRF has become more important as a top testing site for the new glide vehicles. In March 2020, a joint Army-Navy test of a hypersonic glide body marked the first successful U.S. test where the missile flew at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, to reach a designated target. In July 2021, the Navy and MDA conducted a Flight Test Aegis Weapon System 33 at PMRF, one of the most complex missions ever conducted by MDA, to intercept Short Range ballistic missiles. These tests will be critical in ensuring effective defense of Guam and give the military what it needs in the face of the growing Pacific missile threat. 

PRMF urgently has to upgrade its infrastructure to meet the evolving demands of complete situational awareness required for successful testing. The first step will be to authorize a detailed budget assessment to determine the specific cost, capabilities, and infrastructure that are in need of investment. Upgrading PRMF from their current IAMD enhanced capability to an IAMD advanced capability should be the top priority. This entails increasing both physical and cybersecurity for the base, upgrading communication systems and launch facilities, and the construction of a new Range Operations Center (ROC). A high-functioning test range is critical ensuring the proper functioning of U.S. military systems, as well as for joint exercises with allies. Keeping the PRMF as it is will produce only the results we expect it to, which is less than what is possible and less than what we need. 

Defending Guam, a U.S. territory, that includes the infrastructure to manage an integrated joint force west of the international date line, should be PDI’s number one priority. This includes establishing a distributed force posture, establishing a Mission Partner Environment (MPE), and advancing Pacific Multi-Domain Training and Experimentation Capability (PMTEC) to modernize our ranges.” Admiral John C. Aquilino, Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, at his Senate confirmation hearing, March 23rd, 2021.

Islands in the Stream, that is what we are, no one in between.

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MDAA’s mission is to make the world safer by advocating for the development and deployment of missile defense systems to defend the United States, its armed forces, and its allies against missile threats.

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