Posted on 09/03/2019 10:50:56 AM PDT by ransomnote
The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Ballistic Missile Defense Operational Test Agency, and elements of the US Army E-62 Battery - 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade - on 30 August conducted the first intercept test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) rapidly-deployable ballistic missile defence weapon system using a remote launcher kit (RLK) developed by the MDA.
During the test, designated Flight Test THAAD-23 (FTT-23), a THAAD system deployed at Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll, in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, detected, tracked, and intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile threat representative target using a THAAD launcher positioned at distance from the other THAAD end items.
"A remoted THAAD launcher is like any other THAAD launcher but rather than being connected to the system via its organic fiber optic cable it is connected via an RLK allowing for much greater emplacement flexibility and consequently offering greatly expanded asset defence options," a Lockheed Martin spokesperson told Jane's .
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(Excerpt) Read more at janes.com ...
Chicoms take note.
AEGIS can handle most of the short-range stuff coming out of PRC and Norklandia, but THAAD...from South Korea, Japan and Guam is needed for some of the longer range missiles.
We need the Philippines to grant basing rights to cover much of the S China Sea for IRBMs.
These defenses up the ante for any Nork or PRC calculation. They can’t just fire a few at isolated targets and expect them to get through. They have to fire dozens or hundreds at all targets at the same time.
They have to opt for existential war out of the gate. A DAUNTING calculation. Especially since US Strategic forces would be the response to that scale of attack. True end-of-THEIR-world calculation.
The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
Poor choice of name. Makes me think of Jerry’s Kids.
launched from Vandenburg?
Iranians and Norks, pay attention here. We can shoot down your junk and then end your countries, all in about 30 minutes.
the question is what is chinas actual production of IRBMS, they have effectively unlimited manufacturing capabilities, and their cost of production is probably a fraction of what the US’s ever was.
the electronics and other things that used to be hard to do are now easy.
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