Posted on 08/03/2019 7:18:50 AM PDT by Steve1999
SYDNEY, Australia — Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Saturday he hoped to soon place ground-launched, intermediate-range missiles in Asia, a day after the United States pulled itself from a Cold War era arms control pact. “Yes, I would like to,” Esper told reporters traveling with him to Sydney when asked whether he was considering deploying such missiles in Asia. “I would prefer [in] months, I just don’t have the latest state of play on timelines for either a cruise missile or long-range missile ... but these things tend to take longer than you expect.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
It will be curious what Asian countries agree to this. The only three candidates I can see are: Philippines, South Korea, and maybe Japan.
I have been a vocal advocate on this site for years to put Nuke IRBMs in Asia.
It seems the Pentagon is catching up.
The Philippines? Perhaps.
Enough time has elapsed since we pulled out of Clark and Subic Bay that they might consider such a thing.
South Korea? I would think quite possible, especially considering the past couple of years. Depends on the amount of cooperation baby Kim of NK and whoever in SK is having at the moment.
To put such missiles in your country is to paint a big fat target for the opposing strategic forces as someone’s proxy without own skin in a game in a nuclear war. I don’t think many serious countries would easily agree to that.
It would be awesome if Taiwan were one of the countries but not likely. Vietnam perhaps ? They have major issues with the Chinese.
We had a chance to prevent the Chicoms and Norks from becoming who they are now by punching both countries in the face hard. I would say if you (Chicoms) cross that parallel,we will reign Hell on you. The Swamp,even back then,would not have that.
You mean publicly? There isn’t a place on earth we can’t already hit. Why waste the money? We have had missiles in South Korea since 1991.
The latest is that in 2017 South Korea tested an 800 km range Hyunmoo-2C missile. That’s just under 500 miles.
On 4 September 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump agreed “in principle” to scrap a warhead weight limit on South Korea’s missiles in the wake of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test.
Trust me, they never left. With this alone, parts of Japan is within reach, North Korea, Russia and China. For a middle range, that’s all they need.
rwood
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