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The World is a Safer Place

July 11, 2016
South Korean Defense Ministry's Deputy Minister for Policy Yoo Jeh-seung (left) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (right)

Dear Members and Friends,

 

Friday, July 8th, 2016 witnessed two historic announcements and firsts for missile defense on opposite ends of the world. These two milestone achievements put forward remarkable technical proven capability to defend millions of people in Asia and South Eastern Europe from nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles, making the world a safer place. These two monumental statements delivered by the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Warsaw, Poland and South Korean Defense Ministry’s Deputy Minister for Policy Yoo Jeh-seung have direct strategic implications of the national and collective will of western democratic democracies for deterrence and defense of national territories and their populations from ballistic missiles to Iran, North Korea, China and Russia. North Korea and Iran are now forced to change their calculus of threatening an undefended Europe and South Korea with nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles. China and Russia are forced by this decision to put significant pressure that the international community has been unable to do on North Korea and Iran to stop their ballistic missile development or accept the proliferation of increased complex missile defense systems in Europe and Asia.

The first statement on July 8th, 2016 in Asia, for the first time, an official decision to deploy a defensive system, a United States THAAD battery that provides the overall coverage for the 50 million population and entire land mass of the Republic of Korea from nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles launched from North Korea. The Republic of Korea and the United States up until this decision have deployed limited small area missile defense systems, Patriots , for air bases and high value assets.

The second statement on July 8th, 2016 in Europe, for the first time, NATO has declared initial operations under NATO Command and NATO Control of a missile defense deployed system in Turkey- U.S. TYP2 Radar, Romania- U.S. Aegis Ashore Site  Germany- NATO Command and Control and Spain- 4 U.S. Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Destroyers that provides the overall coverage for the over 50 million population and entire land mass of Southeastern Europe from nuclear and conventional ballistic missiles launched from Iran. This completes President Obamas initiative for the second phase of the European Phased Adaptive Approach as announced in 2009 and in the2010 Ballistic Missile Defense Review policy.

It is a technical and strategic historic achievement of magnitude in the defense of over 100 million people and has made the world a safer place. Credit and great appreciation goes to the courage of NATO, the Republic of Korea, the United States and the Missile Defense Agency under the leadership of President Barack Obama.

The world is a safer place.

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Mission Statement

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.

MDAA is the only organization in existence whose primary mission is to educate the American public about missile defense issues and to recruit, organize, and mobilize proponents to advocate for the critical need of missile defense. We are a non-partisan membership-based and membership-funded organization that does not advocate on behalf of any specific system, technology, architecture or entity.

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