Dear Members and Friends,
Last Friday, in New York City, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter made a critical and crucial statement to the Council on Foreign Relations regarding U.S. missile defense in Korea.
“Oh, it’s going to happen. It’s a necessary thing. It’s between us and the South Koreans; it’s part of protecting our own forces on the Korean peninsula, and protecting South Korea.”
In the current non-confrontational, de-escalatory foreign policy environment of this Administration, a long awaited and refreshing statement of courage from our Secretary of Defense took place on the now impending deployment of a U.S. THAAD Battery in Korea, despite tremendous Chinese objection.
“(It) Has nothing to do with the Chinese, and I do wish the Chinese would work with us, or really work bilaterally with North Korea more effectively, although it’s easy to say that – dealing with North Korea for anybody is a challenge – at heading off their missile challenge in the first place.”
“But we need to defend our own people, we need to defend our own allies, and we are going to do that.”
This year alone, North Korea with blatant intent has made tremendous progress on its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities; conducting another nuclear test in January, a successful long range missile launch in February, flying a metal object over the Super Bowl four hours before kickoff, numerous tests of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, and over this past weekend, a successful test of a liquid-fuel engine designed for an ICBM.
The ICBM engine, tested on April 9, is believed to have used technology from an old Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile and high-energy propellants that would give the missile a longer range. It is speculated this new engine could be used on the KN-08 or the KN-14 to potentially deliver a nuclear warhead to targets 10,000 to 13,000 km away, which would be capable of striking the east coast of the United States. This engine test comes less than a month after North Korea reportedly tested a solid-fuel rocket engine, which would drastically reduce the preparation time needed for a missile launch and would allow North Korean missiles more mobility.
One analyst from 38 North said this demonstrates that North Korea’s ballistic missile capabilities are further advanced in the development stage than originally believed and that flight tests could begin within a year. and potentially deployment of this modified system in a limited operational capability by 2020.
This new engine capability clearly demonstrates the need, by 2020, to increase our reliability of our GMD system, increase capability and capacity for additional sensor discrimination, and increase the inventory and basing, once the improved GMD capabilities are proven. This is the direction that the Missile Defense Agency has clearly defined and testified before Congress that they are accomplishing.
THAAD, along with Aegis BMD, is the right answer to address our large regional defensive coverage needs. As the world’s newest and best missile defense system, THAAD has a perfect test record, 13 out of 13 intercepts from 2006 to 2015. One THAAD battery has the capability to defend large regions and whole countries with multiple shot opportunities against complex multiple ballistic missiles in lower space and inside the atmosphere as it will do for the Republic of Korea and is doing today for Guam.
Our nation today has only five THAAD batteries, four of them in Fort Bliss, Texas in a normal three battery rotation, along with one additional battery being a quick global response force asset to fly anywhere in the world. The fifth THAAD is in Guam.
The United States is only acquiring a total of seven THAAD batteries, down from their original request of nine THAAD Batteries. The demand for these phenomenal systems is off the hook from the United States Combatant Commanders around the world to have them in their theater or Area of Operation (AOR). If it’s good enough to defend South Korea and Guam from North Korea and, more importantly, to send a deterrent message to the threatening nation along with assurance to the allies it protects, then its good enough for CENTCOM, EUCOM and PACOM who certainly will demand them to be deployed in their AORs.
Our Secretary of Defense needs to continue his courage and fortitude to stand up to the Chinese and the Russians, and do what is right for our nation and our allies.
“But we need to defend our own people, we need to defend our own allies, and we are going to do that,” Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City last Friday.
