Dear Members and Friends,
Tucked away in a small auditorium at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama was a transfer of authority ceremony honoring Colonel William Lamb for the historic program development over the past five years to bring material release this December of the United States Army’s most complex weapon and most wanted missile defense system, used by our military war fighters: the Terminal High Altitude and Area Defense System – THAAD. A strategic and theater system that can defend and protect any of the U.S. Military forward operating bases against raids and salvos of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles of up to 3,000 kilometers. This is an invaluable asset of clear deterrent capability, with a critical defensive role for U.S. bases, where high troop and infrastructure concentrations are within current ranges of numerically superior Iranian and North Korean deployed offensive missiles.
The Department of Defense in its belief of this system’s capabilities, has ordered 9 THAAD Batteries that includes 9 AN/TPY-2 Radars, 54 THAAD Launchers and 503 THAAD Missiles. A THAAD Battery is a self-contained land based system made up of six shooters, a sensor and a fire control component manned by 99 U.S. Army Soldiers.
Over the past five years, Colonel Lamb, under extreme internal pressure and oversight, brought to bear the following achievements for THAAD:
– 4 for 4 successful flight-test intercepts. The THAAD program is 7 for 7 since returning to flight-testing in 2007
– Completion of a three-year government ground, environments, mobility, and safety test program at 5 national test ranges
– Successful and on schedule completion of independent operational testing of the THAAD weapon system during its Limited User Testing in May/Jun 2010
– An emergency activation of THAAD test assets to defend Hawaii twice (Mar/Apr and May/Jun) in 2009 during the North Korean ballistic missile launches that year
– First time overseas deployment of THAAD to participate in European Command Juniper Cobra 10 test in Israel, Nov 2009
– Development of the first foreign military sales case for THAAD with the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
– Successful fielding of THAAD weapon system and equipment to the first two batteries to be activated in the U.S. Army – A/4 Air Defense Attachment (ADA) and A/2 ADA in the 11th ADA Brigade at Fort Bliss, Texas.
The U.S. Military confidence in this system is placed at the highest levels due to its extensive long and enduring testing and development history, as well as its capability to intercept multiple missiles in space and in the atmosphere within inches of its intended targets on incoming missiles.
On behalf of our nation, our armed forces and our allies, thank you for your service and your leadership of this system, Colonel William Lamb.
