Threat from N. Korean missiles addressed
COURTESY RICHARD LEHNER / 2013
U.S. Rep. Mark Takai is advocating operationalizing Aegis Ashore at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.
U.S. Rep. Mark Takai’s office said proposed defense legislation would require the Pentagon to report back on the level of ballistic missile threat to Hawaii and the efficacy of making the Aegis Ashore missile testing site on Kauai operational.
Also required within 60 days of passage of the bill would be a study, including cost, on installing a medium-range ballistic missile radar “for the defense of Hawaii.”
The language included by the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, of which Takai is a member, would prevent the Pentagon from placing Aegis Ashore into a “cold” or “standby” status as missile defense testing winds down there — a step intended to address an expected testing gap.
The bill additionally seeks within 120 days a broader review to see whether it would be a good idea to bolster U.S. missile defense by deploying one or more Aegis Ashore sites to the mainland and Guam.
The subcommittee proposals are expected to be rolled into the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act markup next week.
Takai’s office said he worked with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to bring about $10 million in planning and design funds to the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai for a medium-range missile discriminating radar and to evaluate whether the test facility could be operationalized as a defensive site.
“Increasing missile threats from North Korea and other actors in the region make it necessary to upgrade our defensive systems in Hawaii,” Takai said in a news release. The Hawaii lawmaker also wants the Sea-Based X-Band Radar used more for defense.
U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard also has advocated operationalizing Aegis Ashore at the Pacific Missile Range Facility for added Hawaii defense.
Gen. Vincent Brooks, head of U.S. Army Pacific at Fort Shafter, said at a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing Tuesday for his nomination as head of U.S. Forces Korea that Kim Jong-un’s assumption of control over North Korea following his father’s death in 2011 “has led to a more aggressive and unpredictable North Korea.”
The head of U.S. Northern Command said last month that North Korea could hit Hawaii, Alaska and the mainland with an intercontinental ballistic missile and that it was prudent to assume it has the ability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon.
Kim “appears to be more risk-tolerant, arrogant and impulsive than his father, raising the prospect of miscalculation,” Brooks said in answers to advance Senate questions.
DefenseNews.com reported that Lt. Gen. Robert Brown, commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center in Kansas, is Brooks’ likely replacement in Hawaii.
The Kauai missile facility, which tracks incoming missiles and fires interceptors, was put in place to test defensive Aegis Ashore sites for Romania and Poland. It uses a land-based SPY-1 radar and SM-3 missiles like those on 33 Navy Aegis ships with ballistic missile shoot-down capability.
Riki Ellison, chairman of the nonprofit Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, said last month that Hawaii lags in ballistic missile defense while the United States pours billions into defensive additions in Alaska and the mainland, Guam, Japan and South Korea.
The Missile Defense Agency said in 2013 when the Kauai site was first powered up that the “Aegis Ashore facility is a test facility and is not planned as an operational site.”
Hawaii has limited protection from ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California. Aegis Ashore could provide at least two more shot opportunities to knock out a North Korean missile in the terminal phase of flight, according to Ellison’s organization.
Takai said he was able to include an amendment in the defense bill for $205 million to replace aging aircraft at the Marine Corps base at Kaneohe Bay with two new C-40 Clippers based on the Boeing 737-700C to support U.S. Pacific Fleet requirements.
Takai said he also worked to advance military funding for projects in Hawaii including:
>> Over $72 million for projects at Kaneohe Bay for a consolidated communications and electrical facility.
>> $40 million for the second phase of the new command and control facility at Fort Shafter.
>> $31 million for a National Guard combined support maintenance shop in Hilo to support ongoing training at Pohakuloa Training Area.
>> More than $17 million for an energy conservation project at the National Security Agency-Hawaii in Kunia.
>> Over $43 million for the continued power grid consolidation at the Pacific Missile Range Facility.
>> $11 million for the National Guard F-22 Composite Repair Facility at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
11 responses to “Threat from N. Korean missiles addressed”
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Meanwhile our president is on a photo opp in England.
People keep grumbling no matter what Obama does. Presidents need to multitask, especially when doing foreign diplomatic trips that has been planned many months in advance. America is supposed to be a global leader, so they need to attend these meetings abroad even if it’s just to show face.
He’s milking the system before the year and he are done with !!!
Back to Chicago and a “community organizer” playi8ng the race card.
Let’s take a look at His Highness’s impact on the British:
President Obama was in London on Friday, where he delivered a passionate plea to Britain to vote to remain in the European Union in an upcoming referendum.
The American leader’s intervention in the country’s fierce “Brexit” row has proven remarkably divisive in London, with some politicians attacking him for being “anti-British” and others suggesting that Obama’s part-Kenyan heritage led to an “ancestral dislike of the British empire.”
Obama was apparently not fazed. During a joint news conference with Britain’s David Cameron on Friday afternoon, he offered a stern warning of the potential consequences for the transatlantic relationship should Britain leave the E.U. However, it wasn’t just Obama’s warnings that gained attention among the Brits – it was a subtle stylistic shift in the way he worded those warnings.
“I think it’s fair to say maybe some point down the line, but it’s not going to happen any time soon because our focus is on negotiating with the E.U.,” Obama told reporters. “The U.K. is going to be at the back of the queue.”
Obama was simply repeating a warning made before by U.S. officials: that the U.S. is not interested in bilateral trade deals with individual countries, and that they would focus instead on deals with larger organizations like the E.U. However, the president’s choice of words when making this point left many gobsmacked. The president of the United States had used the word “queue,” typically used by Brits, rather than “line,” considered the proper term in American English.
Some Brits quickly grew suspicious – was Obama pandering to his audience with this Britishism? Or was this a secret sign that someone British had been helping him craft his speech?
This is a waste of money. Better to spend it in beefing up negotiations with the N. Koreans.
Nope…there is no negotiating with North Korea. Their country is under the control of a crazy and tyrannical leader. Make the test site operational!!!
Wee willy, you out-of-touch T # W @ A * T… you’re the #1 rail shill who supports endless burning of money and yet say people should NEGOTIATE with a rogue nation that’s proven it cannot negotiate and is run by sociopathic little nutcase who even their staunchest “ally”, China, cannot even control or talk sense to???? GO HIDE UNDER YOUR TROLL ROCK
I’d like to see one successful missile get through and hit Krakaako
What is interesting about this article is all the improvements that are slated for defense facilities in the hundreds of millions and yet there is apparent debate about protecting all of it and us more when the cost of operationalizing the Aegis facility and new radar might be even less? Let us be proactive and have these defenses in place before something happens and we are scrambling to contain the catastrophic damage.
As a related issue, even Japan has land-based missile defense installed as a backup to their Aegis destroyers, despite their reluctance to arm with nuclear weapons as a deterrent based on history. You can bet that the pacifists in Japan will change their tune about domestically held nukes and their military being more assertive in defense if they are ever hit by a nuclear missile from North Korea. But in this case, it will be reactive and not proactive, plus too late for a considerable amount of their citizens and countryside.
This is the defense industrial complex we’re talking about. They desperately wanted and got their precious, fancy pants F-35 jets when they could have upgraded and built a lot more battle proven A-10s/F-15s/FA-18s. It’s all about corporate WELFARE.
If Kim Jong-Il and North Korea would ever be so stupid to launch nuke one of our allies or us, we’d glass them faster than Kim Jong-Il could crack a smile. Oh wait….no that’s right. President Obama would send Sec. Kerry over to negotiate and offer them free stuff.