The U.S. military has begun deploying a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) battery to South Korea to protect against North Korean ballistic missiles.
The “first elements” of the Lockheed Martin [LMT] system began arriving in South Korea on March 6, according to U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) and U.S. Forces Korea. A video posted online shows two truck-mounted interceptor launchers rolling off a transport plane at a South Korean airport. Besides interceptors and launchers, a THAAD battery includes missile-tracking radar and fire control and communications equipment.
The United States and South Korea agreed in July to the THAAD fielding in response to North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons development. The system’s arrival occurred the same day that four medium-range ballistic missiles lifted off from the northwest corner of North Korea and traveled more than 620 miles before landing in the Sea of Japan, the Pentagon said.
“Continued provocative actions by North Korea, to include yesterday’s launch of multiple missiles, only confirm the prudence of our alliance decision last year to deploy THAAD to South Korea,” Navy Adm. Harry Harris, PACOM commander, said March 7.
THAAD is designed to destroy short- and medium-range ballistic missiles inside or outside the Earth’s atmosphere during their final phase of flight. The system’s delivery came less than a week after the Pentagon said that South Korea had cleared the way for a land transfer critical to THAAD’s placement.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, welcomed THAAD’s arrival and said the recent North Korean test “served as a reminder of the grave threat North Korea poses to U.S. military personnel in the Asia-Pacific region as well as millions of civilians in South Korea and Japan.”
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA), meanwhile, plans to conduct THAAD’s next two tests this summer. In one test, the system will try to intercept a separating intermediate-range ballistic missile, in which the target warhead will separate from its booster rocket, an MDA spokeswoman said. In the other, THAAD will try to intercept a medium-range ballistic missile inside the atmosphere.