Missile Defense Arc Being Created Across Asia-Pacific

[bananas]

http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2013/03/md-arc-being-created-across-asia-pacific.html

Tuesday, March 26, 2013
MISSILE DEFENSE ARC BEING CREATED ACROSS ASIA-PACIFIC

As part of Obama's recent announcement about expanding "missile defense" (MD) systems in Alaska, along with studies to determine a possible site for an East Coast base in the US, the Pentagon also announced a second MD X-band radar would go into Japan.

The US military uses X-band radars to precisely track the trajectory of an "enemy" ballistic missile, allowing its forces to launch Army ground-based (PAC-3) and Navy sea-based (SM-3) interceptors as soon as a missile is detected.

<snip>

While the US claims that its MD program is aimed at North Korea's tiny nuclear program, the growing numbers of systems now being deployed in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Okinawa (and the direction they point) indicate they are in actuality being used against China.

Some reports have indicated that the Pentagon is also considering plans to deploy a third radar somewhere else in the region like the Philippines to create an “arc” across East Asia to bolster MD capabilities.

<snip>

[TwilightGardener]

1. I feel like we shouldn't know the particulars, somehow.

[jberryhill]

2. Part of the strategic value is to provide information

The outline of the system is something you want to be known by a prospective opponent in order to decrease confidence in the effectiveness of a first strike. The Chinese can launch a lot of missiles and invest a lot into countermeasures. The PRK can't.

The Chinese shouldn't consider this to be destabilizing, and they have a substantial interest in US deterrence of a PRK attack on the US.

[TwilightGardener]

3. That makes sense, I guess--deterrence-wise.

[Leslie Valley]

4. Once again Bill Murray was ahead of his time

[xtraxritical]

5. Just bananas...

[davidpdx]

6. I was speculating a bit that I thought there was some kind of shield in South Korea

for missiles. It makes sense for deterrence.

[Gunter]

7. What about Europe

I guess it's high time to let Europeans take care of their security themselves instead of posing them into confrontation with the ruskies.