USFK Confirms THAAD Remains in South Korea
After all the trouble to put the THAAD system in back in 2017 it makes sense that it would not be moved to the Middle East:
U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing at the Capitol in Washington, April 10, 2025, in this photo captured from the committee’s website. Yonhap
The United States has not moved its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system from South Korea to the Middle East to support its military operations against Iran, but “munitions” are awaiting transfer there, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson said Tuesday.
The general made the remarks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, following speculation that the U.S. military has repositioned or will move USFK assets to the Middle East to back up America’s war efforts against the Islamic Republic.
You can read more at the link.
The THAAD proved to be useless. The Iranian drones destroyed all the THAAD batteries in the Gulf states, because they were stationary and easy to target with round bullseye signs on them. I imagine it will be the exact same thing when the Chinese or North Korean drones are done with them.
It’s a shame about all those THAAD interceptors shot down by ballistic missiles.
Then the Iranian leadership stole American bombs, brought them into their homes and offices, and destroyed them.
And you beat the hell out of that kid in gym class by repeatedly punching his fist with your face.
CH, it seems you’ve stumbled on how the USA lost the Cold War to the USSR… they just got bored and put Boris Yeltsin in charge… Where he destroyed the economy more thoroughly than the West could ever have done, and handed the ruins to Vlad Putin… Really put us to shame…
But Mad Bob is not playing with a full deck…
@Mad Bob, what you are claiming is not true. Provide a link proving all the THAAD batteries were destroyed. I already know you can’t and if anything U.S. missile defense has been the stars of the recent conflict with the only criticism being everyone in the Gulf wants more of it.
THAAD failed spectacularly, and so did the Patriots. $143 billion – WTF? They paid that much money and this is what they got.
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/iranian-retaliation-us-missile-defence-failures-gulf-lockheed-martin-thaad-patriot-saudi-2896477-2026-04-20
THAADs were destroyed in the first days of the war; they didn’t even last that long.
https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/irgc-destroys-second-us-thaad-system-uae-radar-qatar-early-warning-iran-missile-dominance/
I guess when you get all your news from FOX propaganda, Trump regime news, you wouldn’t know the real story.
How US’ expensive THAAD missile defence umbrella failed to protect Gulf states?
https://news24online.com/world/iran-war-rs-13200559255800-how-us-expensive-thaad-missile-defence-umbrella-failed-to-protect-gulf-states/810904/
“Batteries” may be too general a term, however it is a well known fact that the Iranians destroyed or damaged several THAAD radars in the Middle East.
https://abcnews.com/International/us-allied-radar-sites-middle-east-struck-10/story?id=131164670
So what’s the use of THAAD, if its radar has been taken out?
What’s more troubling is @GIKorea bending sideways and backwards, including trying to claim well-known facts were fake news, to defend Trump’s impulsive and needless war which is making things a lot worse than it was.
One has to remember he advocated for the Second Korean War by stating the US should have struck North Korea during the Clinton Administration.
“According to available imagery, Iran and its proxies have targeted radar systems in at least seven Middle Eastern countries, including damage to multiple AN/TPY-2 radar systems – which support THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile defense systems – and an AN/FPS-132 Phased Array Radar in Qatar.”
In the 1.25 months since this speculative and wishful claim came out, the claims have been quietly modified and greatly downgraded.
It is now unclear if any actual radar was damaged.
The THAAD system is not offline so it is assumed attacks were unsuccessful, much to the disappointment of anti-American media…
…and anti-Americans such as yourself.
Fake news! Fake news! Fake! All fake, I tell you!
You get THAAD source from India?
No doubt shows the racist attitudes of the Setnaffarians.
These small minded attitudes espoused by the MAGA right will lead to the decline of America, which I might add has already started.
Based on your logic, you’re just as small minded espoused by far-left Socialists/Commies that will lead to the decline of the world, which I might add has already started.
Everything is racist! You’re a racist! He’s a racist! She’s a racist! Everyone’s a racist!
Dude, all I asked was if he gets his defense source from India.. which btw, is a legitimate question given their relation to this topic. And you’re going bonkers like all the rest of the loonies I’ve seen of the left on social media. Oy vey.
The reason you asked is because you planned to use your disdain for Indians, and negative stereotypes of Indians in the hopes of shooting holes in Mad Bob’s logic.
Which BTW is the Setnaffarian way of doing things, because it incorporates
a) racism
b) finding any excuse to shoot down news articles that don’t agree with their way of thinking.
So to answer your question, no, it wasn’t a legitimate question on your part.
ChickenHead’s 7th Law
When an unrelated charge of racism is introduced into an otherwise nonracial argument, it signals a depletion of relevant evidence and the exhaustion of substantive counterarguments.
Considering that ChickenHead is part of the Chinese and Russian funded Setnaffarian laptop farm bot cult which delves in fake news and misinformation, one can say his laws are irrelevant.
“the Chinese and Russian funded Setnaffarian laptop farm bot cult”
Just because you can string random words together doesn’t necessarily mean you should.
Israel is getting absolutely clobbered. So much for the Iron Dome, which is no more. They’re getting what they absolutely deserve.
“Israel is getting absolutely clobbered. So much for the Iron Dome, which is no more. They’re getting what they absolutely deserve.”
That is perhaps the most racist comment in ROK Drop history.
This blatant display of antisemitic bigotry is a direct assault on a minority population and takes away any legitimacy you may have had when claiming racism over anyone who disagrees with you.
Further, you are absolutely wrong.
They are just getting a taste of their own medicine.
They haven’t gotten what they absolutely deserve since the early ’40s.
My disdain for Indians? Negative stereotypes? I haven’t even said anything and you’re putting words in my mouth.. You really need to see a therapist, non-Korean person.
Haven’t heard of anything new happening in Israel. Just checked Al Jazeera, which I think would have covered it. Scott Ritter make another video?
Between TDS and a large portion of the population unable to conceive of possible scenarios and consequences 15 minutes into the future, much less days, weeks, months or even years, many people still don’t seem to understand much of what is going on and what’s at stake.
Admittedly none of us can know all the planning and strategy taking place. But in my eyes it’s obvious what Iran’s end game was. By building an arsenal of drones and missiles while pursuing nuclear weapons, wait until they had a sufficient stockpile to completely shut down the strait in perpetuity, nuclear capability, and a tap on the shoulder from China or Russia to make things painful for everyone else.
At the same time fund proxies in the region to expand their reach to lob rockets across borders and maybe even more consequential funding the Houthis in an attempt to threaten the Red Sea passage.
If things continued on their previous trajectory it would have been more difficult if not impossible to take them out of play. A regional power would have been able to dictate terms to a superpower. Maybe multiple superpowers.
The rest of the world can hem and haw but they have neglected their defense spending for decades. I suspect they knew this needed to happen and are happy we are footing the bill. They can wash their hands of it and pretend they don’t care about Iran’s capabilities to shut down international shipping and oil trade but the truth is they have as much at stake if not more and should be contributing to the effort.
To pretend Iran would have never bombed its neighbors and shut down the strait if the US didn’t take action is disingenuous at best. I don’t know for certain that they would have but it’s in everyone’s interest that they don’t even have the ability to.
@Mad Bob, you said all the THAAD batteries were destroyed. You have not proved your claim. Saudi Arabia owns one THAAD battery and the UAE has two THAAD batteries. The US has publicly disclosed it has THAAD deployed in Israel and Jordan. It is unclear if there are any other THAAD batteries in the region.
That is a minimum of 5 THAAD batteries plus there are two Forward Based Mode AN/TPY-2 radars in the region, one in Israel and the other in Qatar. This is the same radar the THAAD battery uses. Public reporting has shown that a THAAD radar was destroyed in Jordan and has now been replaced and the battery is operational again. Looking at the damage to the radar it was pretty clear it was hit by drone which the THAAD is not designed to defend against.
Public reporting also said buildings housing a UAE THAAD radar and a Saudi THAAD radar was hit by Iran. It is unclear if the radar was inside the buildings or not when hit. So there is no confirmation of damaged radars. Just so you are aware radars need to be outside of buildings to operate, so it the radar was deployed the Iranians would have hit an empty building.
So your claim of all the THAAD batteries being destroyed comes down to one confirmed radar being destroyed that was replaced and two building complexes known to house THAAD radars in with unconfirmed damage.
The fact that USFK deployed interceptors to the Middle East shows THAAD has been busy shooting down ballistic missiles from Iran and needs to be reloaded. Why would the US send missiles for reloading if all the batteries were destroyed as you claim?
You might want to stop commenting on topics you know nothing about.
As per the Korea Times article
Honest mistake by @GIKorea or another of his attempts to spread fake news and misinformation?
Actually, the radars were hit with cluster munitions which were released by the Iranian ballistic missiles not drones.
Not only Jordan, but the Saudi THAAD radar was hit so were two other radars operated by the UAE.
The US has about eight radars, taking two out and replacing them would mean two other batteries somewhere won’t have radars.
Not exactly an ideal situation.
That and the expended interceptors would mean the US won’t have enough missiles when China invades Taiwan.
No doubt @GIKorea and @setnaffa would receive hefty bonuses from China for their efforts to weaken the US, by their active online support for the needless war with Iran.
America will be able to replicate the important parts of Taiwan’s manufacturing usefulness in less than 10 years.
This is being driven in part by NVIDIA and TSMC who recognize the Chinese threat. This is also being driven through quiet and open programs that transcend Trump/Biden/Trump administrations… the Deep State looking out for itself, to America’s incidental benefit.
This timescale can be accelerated quite a bit if necessary.
China invading Taiwan now would be inconvenient but manageable.
There will be a time when it will be ideal for China to take Taiwan so it will no longer be able to compete with America for the advanced semiconductor market.
And, to fight against Chinese aggression, there will be an embargo on China… and an embargo on anyone who deals with China.
China can’t manage this and they know it, so they likely won’t take the bait.
But I watched some high-level Chinese guys get emotional over Taiwan to the point they might do something irrational after rationalizing to themselves that it will all work out.
Let’s see.
Trying to work through the logic here. China paying people to show online support for the US greatly weakening a Chinese ally because it also weakens the US?
At this point I’m 50/50 that GI Korea has a burner account to whip up engagement with inflammatory posts.
Setnaffa I wonder, seeing as you have been at it so long, do you ever get promoted from the tencent army to say like a twenty five cent army or how does that work?
@johnnyboy, I have no idea who the Korea Things area. I figure they are 50 Cent Army. As far as stoking engagement I have no financial incentive to do so. As you can see I have no ads of any kind on this site. This is strictly just a hobby for me to keep up with issues in NE Asia.
@Korea Things, I am still waiting for the evidence that “all” the THAAD batteries were destroyed.
The facts show one US THAAD AN/TPY-2 radar was destroyed and reconstituted while buildings known to house THAAD equipment owned by the UAE and Saudi Arabia were damaged. It is unknown if the UAE and Saudi THAAD equipment was damaged when the buildings were struck. There has been no reports of damage to the two confirmed AN/TYP-2 radars in the region or the THAAD battery deployed to Israel or any other THAAD batteries that may be in the region. This is on top of all the Patriot batteries in the region which there has been no evidence of any of them being destroyed.
U.S. missile defenses have been widely successful, but they are not a magic force field. Even if you have over 90% effectiveness against 1,000 threats coming in you still have 100 or less impacts. The damage to the Gulf states would be catastrophic if it wasn’t for U.S. missile defenses the Gulf states would look like Iran right now.
GI, don’t take them seriously to the point you have to say, “still waiting”.
You will always be waiting.
They may or may not have actually believed what they claimed. Who knows? You can’t expect to understand leftist mental illness.
But once you disprove them and enjoy an acceptable amount of ridicule, move on. They have. They can’t discuss it further. And they won’t.
Ridicule and violence are the only ways to deal with the insane and intrusive left.
GIKorea,
I wasn’t seriously making any accusation about your integrity. I appreciate you keeping this site up.
I have seen video of likely quadcopter drones in Iraq taking out a Sentinel radar and hitting a black hawk. Depending on what upgrades it had the value of the sentinel could be anywhere from 5 to 20 million or so according to a quick search. Looked like it was being flown by Iranian sponsored militias.
That’s another issue that I am curious to see how it plays out. Can the militias stand on their own or will they require a continuous stream of funding from Iran? Maybe they are so ingrained in the Iraqi government at this point it won’t matter.
I haven’t seen the sentinel footage, but drones are a weakness that has been exploited by Iran. Much of the Army’s short range air defense was gutted during the GWOT. The Army is in the process of growing short range air defense again, but clearly not enough units have been fielded yet.
As far as the militias, if Iran stopped propping them up they would likely be defeated by Iraqi security forces. The Iraqi militias are much like Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Lebanese government wants to get rid of Hezbollah, but they are larger, more well funded, and better armed than government forces. However, if the funding is cut how many of their members are going to stay and fight for free? Probably not many which is what would likely happen in Iraq as well if funding is stopped.
@GIKorea
I don’t know when the army realized it had dropped the ball on SHORAD but I know they were eager to fill avenger/sentinel crew positions at the end of the 2000s. Big bonuses and quick ships.
A young man might find himself swearing in at MEPS on a Thursday and standing in a formation at reception battalion the next Wednesday.
Met a few 14 romeos who said we should have never got rid of the linebackers and hated reclassing. They swore the linebackers were more capable and maneuverable than avengers iirc.
I have been told craam systems are fairly effective but only for limited areas. The embassy in irbil seems to have made good use of theirs.
It’s hard to stay on top of all the developments but I remember reading reporting that directed energy may provide a more cost effective method of drone and missile interception but may have limitations in certain weather.
I thought it was funny everyone was making fun of “chewish space laser” conspiracies and then the israelis announced they were working on DEWs.
They did the meme.
@GIKorea
Who are you referring to? No one here by that name. If you are referring to Mad Bob, then you should call him by that name instead of using derogatory and racist anti-Korean language. If you had read the comments carefully, I did tell Mad Bog, that using the term “battery” may be incorrect.
So you accept the fact that one THAAD radar in Jordan was destroyed. You do acknowledge that the other sites were hit but then claim there were no damage to the AN/TPY-2 radars in the Middle East?
Perhaps. But the war was unnecessary from the beginning. Trump let the Israeli con him into an unnecessary war which he now wants to desperately get out of it.
Not only that you have conveniently decided to ignore the hard fact that there may not be enough interceptors to defend against China since Trump used most of them up to prosecute this unnecessary war.
Since you, through the ROK Drop. supported a war that ended up weakening the US against a possible war with China, no doubt you will receive a hefty bonus from the Chinese.
“Perhaps. But the war was unnecessary from the beginning. Trump let the Israeli con him into an unnecessary war which he now wants to desperately get out of it.”
The war was unnecessary only if one believes Iran should possess nuclear weapons and expanded global reach to deliver them under a revolutionary ideology shaped by Karbala martyrdom culture and Khomeini’s doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih… all while expanding terror proxies in the Arabic world.
If banning guns can save just one life…
“Not only that you have conveniently decided to ignore the hard fact that there may not be enough interceptors to defend against China since Trump used most of them up to prosecute this unnecessary war.”
America is not going into a shooting war with China. Economic war is far more deadly than any other kind.