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...
On February 3, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the Japanese Ministry of Defense conducted a successful intercept test of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA. This was the third flight test and first intercept test for the jointly-developed missile. The SM-3 IIA was fired by the USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53), which intercepted and...
Breaking with tradition, the U.S. Army has submitted its revised 2017 and new 2018 lists of unfunded priorities ahead of the next budget submission. Both lists include offensive and defensive missile systems as part of an effort to modernize aging systems considered critical for U.S. military operations. The 2017 list includes a $1.3 billion request...
On Friday, January 20, 2017, The United States, South Korea, and Japan began a three-day naval-missile defense exercise in response to concerns of a possible North Korean ICBM test during President Trump’s inauguration. The exercises were conducted as a combined effort between the USS Stethem (DDG 63), the JDS Kirishima (DDG-174), and the ROKS Sejong the Great (DDG-991). Although...
The Navy destroyer U.S.S. Pinckney (DDG-91) conducted two flight tests of the Tomahawk Block IV missile. The first test used the Launch Platform Mission Planning system which allowed the Pinckney, located off the coast of southern California, to use targeting data provided by U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia. The second test used the...
On December 12, 2016, the Senate confirmed Major General James Dickinson, previously the chief of staff of U.S. Strategic Command, as the new commanding general of the U.S. Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command and the Army Forces Strategic Command. Major General Dickinson will also be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General. Including having served...
On December 1, the United States Senate voted 99-0 in favor of legislation that extends sanctions, including ones pertaining to ballistic missiles, against Iran by 10 years. The House of Representatives approved the same bill in a 419-1 vote in November. In response, Iran has threatened retaliation for what it perceives to be a U.S....
