Tag: PATRIOT

The air defense Soldiers based in both Korea and Japan that were recently deployed to the Middle East saw significant combat action in defense of Al Udeid Airbase in Qatar:

Among the soldiers on guard at Al Udeid, the oldest was a 28-year-old captain and the youngest a 21-year-old private, Caine said. The Patriot crews had arrived in Qatar from South Korea and Japan to bolster defenses. As scores of missiles approached the base, the Patriot crews fired to intercept.

Caine said he was aware of reports that some of the incoming fire got through, but he suggested that it was debris. “Between attacking missiles being hit by Patriots, boosters from attacking missiles being hit by Patriots, the Patriots themselves flying around and the debris from those Patriots hitting the ground, there was a lot of metal flying around,” Caine said. There were no reported injuries connected to Iran’s missiles. “We believe that this is the largest single Patriot engagement in U.S. military history,” Caine said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but great job by all these Soldiers!

This has long been reported, but the ROK military has confirmed the deployment of U.S. Patriot missile batteries off the peninsula for the first time:

About 200 U.S. troops based in South Korea have been temporarily redeployed to the Middle East, according to a South Korean military official cited in a local news report. The soldiers were part of a Patriot missile-defense unit stationed in South Korea and deployed to an undisclosed location the Middle East last month, the Ministry of National Defense official told South Korean broadcast KBS for a report Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, a common practice for government sources in the South. The South Korean defense ministry referred questions to U.S. Forces Korea, which oversees approximately 28,500 American troops on the peninsula. In an email Monday, USFK spokesman David Kim said the command “maintains a ready, capable and lethal force” but declined to provide further details, citing operational security. Patriot batteries are deployed across U.S. military bases in South Korea to protect against potential threats from the North.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but this is what strategic flexibility that U.S. military leaders have been advocating for USFK looks like.

Moving an entire Patriot battalion out of INDOPACOM you would think would be a huge signal to Iran they are about to get smashed if they don’t reign in the Houthis:

U.S. Patriot missile defense systems were recently moved from Asia to the Middle East amid ongoing fighting with Houthi rebels in Yemen and threats from their backers in Iran, the leader of Indo-Pacific Command told lawmakers this week.

Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Adm. Samuel Paparo said the Army had transferred a Patriot battalion from INDOPACOM to the Central Command area of operations as the military builds up its defenses in the region. Tensions have been escalating since the U.S. launched a fresh barrage of airstrikes against the Houthis last month, with President Donald Trump vowing to keep up the pressure until the militants halt attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Trump also has threatened to go after their backers in Iran if the maritime attacks don’t stop.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is a good deal for Japan, they get to sell the Patriot missiles to the U.S. and maintain their charade of not providing aid to Ukraine:

Japan will begin selling domestically produced missiles to the United States in a bid to bolster U.S. weapon supplies in the region. The U.S. will purchase approximately $19.6 million worth of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors, or PAC-3 missiles, the Japanese Defense Ministry’s agency for acquisition, technology and logistics said in a Sunday news release. The number of missiles included in the deal was not disclosed. (….)

“By providing Japanese-made PAC-3 missiles to the United States, Japan can indirectly assist Ukraine with much-needed air-defense systems, but without provoking a public backlash,” Brown told Stars and Stripes by email Wednesday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This article claims the Patriot batteries removed from Saudi Arabia are heading to “Northeast Asia” which likely would mean South Korea:

On May 5, a report by imagery experts at Jane’s Intelligence Review and the Center for Strategic and International Studies confirmed in the unclassified space the existence of a near-completed missile assembly and storage facility large enough to accommodate all known North Korean ballistic missiles and launchers. It is an almost braggadocious representation of the missile modernization program North Korea has pursued over the past decade while simultaneously feigning sincerity about curbing its nuclear pursuits.

As such, the removal of Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia should not be a surprise. They will once again be moved to Northeast Asia to guard against the more imminent threat from an unpredictable Kim Jong-un.

The National Interest

You can read more at the link, but the Patriot batteries in Saudi Arabia were deployed there from units based in the U.S. They are just not going to pick up and move to Korea. Their redeployment means they are going back to the United States. Sending them to South Korea would be a large troop build up and after the THAAD fiasco does anyone think the Moon administration is ready for more U.S. troops and missile defenses to be sent to South Korea?

What is likely going on is that returning the Patriots to the U.S. would give U.S. military planners flexibility to deploy them to augment missile defenses in Korea if a crisis was to occur. The batteries being deployed to Saudi Arabia reduces this flexibility. Additionally it is arguable that providing the missile defenses to Saudis also take the onus off of them to buy and equip their own missile defense to defend themselves.

This exercise was unrelated to the recent North Korean missile launch over Japan, but I think it is pretty significant that the Japanese are willing to demonstrate that they can deploy their own Patriot batteries defend a US airbase:

Japan’s air force demonstrated a Patriot missile-defense system at Yokota in western Tokyo Tuesday, just hours after a North Korean missile flew over Hokkaido.

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force is deploying Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air systems to several U.S. bases in Japan to test their ability to quickly respond to Pyongyang’s missile threats, a U.S. Forces Japan statement said.

A convoy of trucks carrying PAC-3 components arrived at Yokota, headquarters of USFJ and the 5th Air Force, Tuesday morning. The planned deployment happened soon after North Korea test-fired a missile over Japanese territory, prompting alerts in a dozen prefectures before falling into the ocean east of Hokkaido. It was the latest in a string of missile tests this year, including one that appeared to simulate a nuclear attack on U.S. forces in Japan.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

USFK’s Patriot missile defense batteries have become more capable:

The U.S. Army announced that its 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, successfully completed a Patriot missile defense system modernization effort that will provide protection from potential North Korean attacks.

Targa Gibbs, Patriot modernization project officer of the brigade, said that the eight-month task was aimed at ensuring that everything worked and met the industry standard, and training soldiers and crew on the new equipment.

“As part of the training, the batteries networked into the battalion data link architecture from geographically dispersed locations around the peninsula and conducted air battles,” the army said in a statement Monday.

The largest benefit of the overhaul was said to be the replacement of many systems and updating outdated technology. In part of an ongoing plan to enhance air defense capabilities on the Korean Peninsula, the brigade will, in the coming months, modernize their Avengers surface-to-air missile system that protects ground units from incoming short-range missiles, said the army.

The statement did not mention whether the brigade adopted and trained for the all-new Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE), a Lockheed Martin hit-to-kill interceptor, but a local military source told the JoongAng Ilbo that it has.

The PAC-3 MSE incorporates a larger, dual-pulse solid rocket motor, larger fins and upgraded actuators and thermal batteries, according to descriptions from Lockheed Martin.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link as well from the original press release from the Army.

Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning was in Korea and told the ROK media that along with the deployment of the THAAD battery the US is also looking to upgrade its remaining Patriot PAC-2 batteries to the more advanced PAC-3 configuration:

The United States will focus on upgrading the Patriot PAC-2 missile systems in South Korea to the more advanced PAC-3 anti-missile shield to better protect the Seoul metropolitan areas by 2018, the U.S. Army’s senior civilian official said Tuesday.

“Right now, we are focusing on upgrading the Patriot system that we have here in Korea,” United States Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning told Yonhap News Agency in a group interview held in the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul.

He didn’t specifically confirm local reports that Seoul and Washington are planning to replace the PAC-2 system currently in the country with the more lethal PAC-3 system by the end of 2018, although he hinted that such a move is likely.

“I have seen the potential for the upgrades,” the 47-year-old official said during the interview while he visited the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at the air base, adding that the change to a PAC-3 from PAC-2 will allow forces in the country to better cope with evolving nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.  [Yonhap]

Here is what he had to say about the health effects of the THAAD radar:

Asked about local concerns of health risks that might be caused by the powerful radar used in the anti-missile defense system, he pointed out that examination of electromagnetic waves from the operational THAAD battery in Guam showed clearly it poses no problems. The U.S. allowed a group of Korean reporters to visit the U.S. territory and check the level of electromagnetic waves emanating from the AN/TPY-2 radar.

Despite the test results, residents in Seongju, 296 kilometers south of Seoul, have asked the deployment plan to be scrapped, saying that they cannot trust the results. Seoul had tapped the rural town as the site for South Korea’s first THAAD battery last month, with the interceptor system to be operational by 2017.

You can read more at the link.

Visiting U.S. Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning (C) poses with U.S. soldiers in front of Patriot PAC-3 advanced missiles during a visit to the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade of the U.S. Forces Korea’s (USFK) Eighth Army in Osan, south of Seoul, on Aug. 2, 2016. The brigade in charge of intercepting North Korean missiles is expected to run the THAAD missile defense system to be deployed in the country’s southeastern town of Seongju as well. THAAD stands for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. (Yonhap)

Why isn’t the Korean left busy protesting this radar and claiming it will make people sick and cause crop failures?:

A U.S. Patriot missile battery in Japan has been brought to South Korea for a joint exercise amid growing concerns about additional provocations from North Korea, an official of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said, Friday.

The Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 interceptor unit of the U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ), stationed at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, arrived in Busan on July 13 and is now participating in a drill with South Korean military in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province.

The Patriot unit is made up of 120 troops, with a launch vehicle and radar.

It is the first time a Japan-based U.S. Patriot battery has been sent to South Korea.

“The PAC-3 unit is currently training with South Korean troops,” the USFK official told reporters. “The unit will return to Japan after completing the training scheduled to last two weeks.” [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link as well as over at the Stars & Stripes.

The US and ROK militaries have a number of Patriot sites in South Korea and the Korean left does not protest them because there is no political advantage in doing so like there is with the planned deployment of the THAAD battery to Korea.  The Patriots have been South Korea for decades and no one is getting sick or having their crops fail.  The same will eventually be true with the THAAD battery as well.