US to double anti-missile ships in Pacific

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (Reuters) - The United States, concerned about North Korea, will double to six by the end of the year the number of its ships in the Pacific capable of shooting down enemy ballistic missiles, the head of the Pentagon missile-defense project involved said on Wednesday.

"I think it gives the nation more options," Rear Adm. Alan Hicks, program manager for Aegis ballistic missile defense, told reporters here after speaking to a conference on the fledgling U.S. shield.

In coming years, a growing number of ship-based interceptor missiles will be deployed on 18 Aegis cruisers and destroyers as part of a multibillion-dollar U.S. defense push stoked by fears of North Korea and Iran.

The six ships due to be available this year will carry a specialized Aegis combat system developed by Lockheed Martin Corp. as well as Standard Missile SM-3 interceptors built by Raytheon Co., Hicks said.

As such, they will be able to defend against short- and medium-range ballistic missiles as well as against any threats to themselves, he said.

Longer-range, intercontinental missiles travel faster than the current generation of ship-based interceptors, or about 6,000 miles an hour, he said. Japan and the United States are co-developing an advanced model, dubbed SM-3 Block 2, to tackle the long-range threat, with plans to deploy it by 2015.

North Korea test-fired a barrage of seven missiles starting on the U.S. July 4 Independence Day holiday, including a long-range Taepodong 2 with an estimated range that includes the United States. It failed about 40 seconds after launch.

The six shorter-range shots marked successful test flights, showing North Korea's "intent to build out," Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, told reporters here on Tuesday.

None of the three U.S. Aegis ships then capable of shooting down ballistic missiles was on station during the North Korean launches, though other Aegis ships helped track them as part of the layered U.S. anti-missile shield, Hicks said.

The United States has taken other steps to meet the perceived threat of North Korean missiles, which could be tipped with nuclear, chemical or germ weapons.

It is sending Lockheed Martin Corp./Raytheon Co. Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air interceptors to Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa from September and plans to make them partly operational by the end of the year, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said last month.

Actually this is an impetus from Japan, which insisted on this capability...the U.S. Administration was previously content to leave the system as lame as it was from the damage inflicted on it by the Xlinton Administration. Madeline Allbright and Strobe Talbott had made it a crusade to keep the Aegis SM-3 from being capable of intercepting ICBMS, so they lamed it up, by forcing a redesign (out of scarce Navy R&D funds) to shrink the upper stage of the interceptor missile...from the optimum 21-inch diameter to 16" diameter. This drastically slowed down the interceptors closing speed and the altitude and range capacity...i.e., they designed it literally to "run out of gas."

Couldn't have anything get in the way of their precious ABM Treaty, you know. Meanwhile, the aborted SM-3 version...which Japan is painfully re-developing in collaboration with the U.S. for its own ships...do not appear to be slated for U.S. ship deployments as of yet.

The Administration's laggard deployment of the additional 3 Aegis ships to the Korean theater is also possibly due to prompting from Japan's insistence on being protected until its own forces can help. Not altogether an unreasonable request...

I read that they have four of them. Not ABS standard but pretty close.

Indeed, they have four Kongo-class destroyers, and they are adapting all of these to NMD capability along with deploying the PAC-3s and X-Band radars:

Japan’s current BMD role includes the Aegis sea-based missile defense system; land-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor missiles; and the new mobile land-based X-band radar.
Aegis Sea-Based Missile Defense
Japan is currently working with the U.S. to develop and deploy the Aegis sea-based missile defense system, which features Standard Missile-3 interceptor missiles deployed on Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers. Japan plans to deploy 36 SM-3 missiles bewteen 2007 and 2010 on four Aegis-equipped destroyers: Kongo, Chokai, Myoko, and Kirishima. Japan may also install the missile defense system on two new destroyers that are being built in Nagasaki....

And the Japanese are already active in joint exercises...

US And Japan Conduct Missile Defense Test
by Staff Writers
Kauii HI (SPX) Mar 10, 2006

File photo: USS Lake Erie.

The Aegis-equipped cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70) successfully launched a Standard Missile -3 with a cooperatively engineered, experimental nosecone. The experimental nosecone is the result of joint cooperative research by the Missile Defense Agency, Japan Defense Agency (JDA) and U.S. and Japanese industry.
Lockheed Martin, as the U.S. Navy's combat systems engineering agent for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System, provided the system engineering to integrate the experimental Raytheon SM-3 missile configuration into the Aegis BMD Weapon System.
The test, Joint Control Test Vehicle-1 (JCTV-1), was the first flight test of the experimental nosecone. In the standard SM-3 configuration, the missile must maneuver to eject the nosecone, uncovering the exoatomospheric kill vehicle, which is then deployed to intercept the target.
In the experimental configuration, the nosecone opens like a clam shell to more quickly uncover and release the kill vehicle without any missile maneuvers. The flight test mission objectives included evaluation of the advanced nosecone design and characterization of the Aegis BMD Weapon System's performance using this design.
"This is a great example of international teamwork focused on extending the protection provided by the Aegis BMD Weapon System," said Jimmy Carter [?? No not the same one...], Lockheed Martin's director for International Aegis BMD Programs.
The MDA and the U.S. Navy are jointly developing Aegis BMD as part of the United States' Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Ultimately 15 U.S. Navy Aegis destroyers and three Aegis cruisers will be outfitted with the capability to conduct Long Range Surveillance and Tracking (LRS&T) and engagement of short and medium range ballistic missile threats using the Aegis BMD Weapon System and its SM-3 missile.
To date, 11 Aegis destroyers have been upgraded with the LRS&T capability and two Aegis cruisers have been outfitted with the emergency engagement and LRS&T capability.
Japan is modifying the first of up to four Kongo-class Aegis-equipped destroyers with the Aegis BMD system.
The Aegis Weapon System is the world's premier naval surface defense system and is the foundation for Aegis BMD, the primary component of the sea-based element of U.S. BMDS.
Aegis BMD seamlessly integrates new capabilities of the SPY-1 radar, the MK 41 Vertical Launching System and adds the SM-3 missile into the existing Aegis Weapon System's command and control system. Aegis BMD is also integrated with BMDS, receiving cues from and providing cueing information to other BMDS elements.
The Aegis Weapon System is currently deployed on more than 77 ships around the globe with more than 25 more ships planned. In addition to the U.S., Aegis is the maritime weapon system of choice for Japan, South Korea, Norway and Spain. Recently, Australia selected Aegis for its new Air Warfare Destroyer program

They fantasize that if we are weak and vulnerable, we will no longer be as tempting a target.

This is part of specific psychosis. They think we are hated becuase we are strong. They think this because the were most likely the kind of kids that were picked on in school. Rather than fight back, they learned to "Hate" those who were stronger than they--both good and bad.

They hate the strong "bad" kids because they were picked on by them. They hate the strong "good" kids, because they didn't suffer the way they did (jealosy). If only they had all been equal in their weakness, things would have been better.

Because they hate those who are stronger than they are physically (and morally), they assume that those who hate us do so for the same reasons.

/psycho-babble mode

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