On April 6, the United States launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from destroyers based in the Mediterranean, targeting the Al Shayrat Airfield in Syria. The USS Ross (DDG-71) fired 36 of the missiles, while the USS Porter (DDG-78) fired the other 23 Tomahawks. Tomahawk missiles have a range of 1,250-2,500 km and have been an...
On March 15, the Navy conducted a successful flight test using the AN/SPY-6 (V) Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) to track a target from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Kauai, Hawaii. According to a March 30 statement made by Naval Sea Systems Command, the flight test, referred to as ‘Vigilant Hunter,’ achieved its...
On March 16, President Trump announced his nominees for several Department of Defense (DoD) posts. Among them were Boeing executive Patrick Shanahan and DoD-veteran David Trachtenberg. Shanahan, nominated for Deputy Secretary of Defense, worked as vice president for Boeing Missile Defense Systems. Trachtenberg, nominated for the role of Principal Deputy of the Under Secretary of...
On March 14, 2017, the United States, South Korea, and Japan began two days of drills in the Sea of Japan in order to better respond to a potential ballistic missile attack. The drills involve the guided-missile destroyers USS Curtis Wilber (DDG-54), ROKS Sejong the Great (DDG-991), and JDS Kirishima (DDG-174), three Aegis-equipped ships two...
On March 6, the United States deployed the first elements of the THAAD missile defense system to South Korea, per a statement by the United States military. Two THAAD launch vehicles arrived to the U.S. military’s Osan Air Base late in the evening of the same day North Korea tested four ballistic missiles. The head of...
On March 6, North Korea fired four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, three of which flew over 1,000 km and landed within 350 km of mainland Japan. According to Noh Jae-chon, a South Korean military spokesman, the missiles were launched from Tongchang-ri in northwest North Korea. Although the type of missile tested remains unknown,...
On February 27, the board of South Korea’s Lotte Group approved a land swap with the South Korean government that will allow for the deployment of the THAAD missile defense system. According to a South Korean military official, the government and the Lotte Group could sign an agreement as early as Tuesday, meaning that the...
On February 21, ADM Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, called for greater integration of joint forces so that Army platforms can target threats identified by Navy radars and vice versa. Harris, talking about the future of PACOM, said that he’d “like to see the Army’s land forces conduct exercises to sink a...
On February 22, report indicated that China is close to finishing nearly two dozen structures that are suspected to house long-range surface-to-air missiles on its artificial islands in the South China Sea. Analysts detected the building of these structures with retractable roofs, coupled with military length air-strips on the islands of Subi, Michief, and Fiery Cross...
On February 16th, Senators Tom Cotton, (R-Arkansas), Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), and Marco Rubio (R-Florida) introduced the Intermediate- Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) Preservation Act. This piece of legislation, along with a companion piece introduced by Congressmen Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) into the House of Representatives, calls for the United States to develop an...
