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3 April 2013 |
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Dear Members and Friends, Our nation's newest and most comprehensive missile defense system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is being deployed to the island of Guam in protection of the American territory's citizens and all of the United States military forces deployed on there from North Korea's ballistic missile threat as announced today by the Department of Defense. This best in the world capability is able to detect, target, discriminate, and destroy, with kinetic energy, multiple incoming ballistic missiles during their downward flight phase in lower space as well as in the upper atmosphere. Additionally, the heat and friction of reentry into the earth's atmosphere is used to further discriminate incoming debris and missile warheads for successful THAAD intercepts. THAAD relies on its own X-Band Radar to detect and target with its own interceptors similar to those forward based X band radars deployed today that protect the United States, Israel, Turkey, Europe, and Japan. The THAAD system fills the gap of interceptor battle space between the higher Aegis ship based interceptors that operate in space and the lower Patriot land-based systems operating in the lower atmosphere for regional ballistic missile threats. THAAD remains the most successfully tested Missile Defense system since 2003, with a 10 for 10 intercept flight record. The system's last intercept test was October 24,2012, in the Kwajalein Island in the Pacific where it shot down ballistic missiles alongside the Patriot and Aegis Ship BMD systems. It is also of note that in April of 2008, THAAD was put in an operational status in Hawaii while still in development for a North Korean long range ballistic missile test. This capability protects and enhances one of our military's largest staging areas, located in Guam, to project and deploy forces including strategic aircraft throughout the Pacific region. Protecting Guam from ballistic missile threats would further deter North Korea's rational or irrational decision of launching ballistic missiles as well as maintain their fear of offensive retaliation. It is a necessary strategic move by the United States to assure our allies in this region, specifically South Korea and Japan, that we have our best capabilities deployed so that they do not need to take pre-emptive or reactive action against North Korea. We give great credit and sincere appreciation to our President, Department of Defense, Pacific Combatant Commander, and to the Commander of the U.S. Army's 94th AAMDC for making the decision to deploy the Alpha Four THAAD Battery, out of Fort Bliss, Texas, forward into Guam and making our world, nation, our men and women of our armed forces, and our citizens of the American territory Guam safer. This decision to deploy THAAD will help prevent conflict and a potential war with North Korea. Our government is doing the right thing for the right reasons at the right time.
MDAA is a non-profit, non-partisan tax-exempt 501(c) (4) organization. Our mission is to make
the world safer by advocating for the development and deployment of
missile defense systems to defend the United States and its allies
against missile threats. We are a membership-funded organization that
does not advocate on behalf of any specific system, technology,
architecture or entity. Founded in 2002, MDAA is the only organization
in existence whose primary mission is to recruit, organize, and mobilize
proponents to advocate for the critical need of missile defense. Visit
our website
www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org for more information. |
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