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Specific numbers not clear. Patriot batteries and THAAD batteries are ordered to deploy

On this day in 1890, the writer Boris Pasternak was born into an affluent and cultured Russian-Jewish family. His father, Leonid, was a renowned artist and professor at the Moscow School of Painting; his mother Rosa, nee Kaufman, was a concert pianist. His parents’ social circle included notable figures of the day such as Sergei Rachmaninoff and Leo Tolstoy. The influence of this creative community led the young Pasternak to study first music and then philosophy, both in Russia and abroad. In 1912 he abandoned academia to pursue his true calling: poetry and prose. The outbreak of World War I...

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...

Upon landing in Australia in 2017 to attend a seminar, a senior politician with South Korea’s parliamentary defence committee was greeted by Julie Bishop, then Australia’s foreign minister, who had a burning question: “How are you dealing with the China threat?” Bishop was referring to the treatment of South Korean firms in China, which escalated after Seoul agreed in 2016 to a long-standing request from the United States to allow the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system (THAAD) on South Korean soil. Lotte Corporation, one of Korea’s chaebol conglomerates that dominate its economy, had sold a plot...

SIMI VALLEY, Calif (Reuters) - The U.S. agency tasked with protecting the country from missile attacks is scouting the West Coast for places to deploy new anti-missile defenses, two Congressmen said on Saturday, as North Korea's missile tests raise concerns about how the United States would defend itself from an attack. West Coast defenses would likely include Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missiles, similar to those deployed in South Korea to protect against a potential North Korean attack. The accelerated pace of North Korea's ballistic missile testing program in 2017 and the likelihood the North Korean military could...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said recently it would be "game on" if North Korea were to fire a missile at the United States or its allies, but how fast things would happen is not so clear. A leading expert in missile defense told Fox News there would not be much time to decide to shoot down a North Korean missile. “This is a game of minutes, but the initial detection of a launch would be really in terms of seconds,” said Thomas Karako, senior fellow and director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies....

The United States conducted test of THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense unit in Alaska, the NBC television channel said on Sunday referring to military officials, Interfax reports. "The anti-missile defense agency and the 11th anti-aircraft artillery brigade from Fort Bliss (Texas) conducted a successful missile test using the THAAD system," the MDA said in a statement. It is noted that the launch of a ballistic missile was made by one of the US Air Force aircrafts, it was intercepted by the ABM system. At the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the test was called "successful." As reported, South Korea is deploying 4...

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Ballistic Missile Defense System Operational Test Agency, and U.S. Army soldiers of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas, conducted an intercept test today of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) element of the nation’s ballistic missile defense system. The test, designated Flight Test THAAD (FTT)-18, was executed by MDA, supported by elements of the U.S. Army, Joint Forces Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Coast Guard, Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska (PSCA), Ballistic Missile Defense Operational Test Agency, DoD Operational Test and Evaluation, and the...

The U.S. on Tuesday test-fired its THAAD anti-ballistic missile system from Alaska that successfully intercepted a target missile launched from an Air Force Cargo plane north of Hawaii. The drill was previously scheduled in June and comes a week after North Korea successfully test-launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of hitting Alaska. THAAD is used to intercept short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. It does not target intercontinental ballistic missiles. The U.S. has a perfect record on launches, hitting 14 out of 14 targets. "I couldn't be more proud of the government and contractor team who executed this flight test today,"...

Trump expresses fury over S. Korea's decision to delay THAAD US President Donald Trump expressed fury over South Korea's decision to delay the full deployment of the US THAAD missile defense system pending an environmental assessment, a senior official said Sunday. Trump showed the reaction when he discussed the matter with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at the White House on June 8, the official told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity. The revelations, if true, raise concern that the issue could affect the first summit meetings between President Moon Jae-in and Trump set...

Calling it a "very shocking" incident, South Korea's new president on Tuesday demanded an investigation into why his office wasn't told by defense officials about the arrival of several additional launchers for a contentious U.S. missile defense system meant to cope with North Korea's nuclear threat. Before taking office on May 10, Moon Jae-in vowed to review the deployment of a system that has infuriated both North Korea and China, which consider its powerful radar a security threat. Many of Moon's supporters don't want the system, which U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Seoul should pay for. On Tuesday, senior presidential...

Washington is working to push through contracts for tens of billions of dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia, some new, others in the pipeline, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's trip to the kingdom this month, people familiar with the talks told Reuters this week. Saudi Arabia is Trump's first stop on his maiden international trip, a sign of his intent to reinforce ties with a top regional ally. The United States has been the main supplier for most Saudi military needs, from F-15 fighter jets to command and control systems worth tens of billions of dollars in recent...

Original newz story - Click here As we pointed out earlier today, Reuters cited US military officials who said that the U.S. military’s THAAD anti-missile defense system has “reached initial intercept capability” in South Korea, although they added that it would not be fully operational for some months. Just hours after the announcement, Beijing lashed out at DC and demanded an “immediate halt” to the controversial US missile shield. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang voiced the government’s position against the move during a briefing on Tuesday. “We oppose the deployment of the US missile system to South Korea and...

China demanded on Tuesday an immediate halt to a controversial US missile shield hours after Washington announced that the defence system was now operational in South Korea. Washington and Seoul agreed to the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery deployment in July in the wake of a string of North Korean missile tests. But its deployment has infuriated China, which fears it will weaken its own ballistic missile capabilities and says it upsets the regional security balance.

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor (R) is seen in Seongju, South Korea. WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military’s THAAD missile defense system in South Korea has reached an initial operating capability to defend against North Korean missiles, U.S. officials said on Monday, forging ahead with the system despite staunch objections from China. Beijing has opposed activation of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), arguing the system’s radar could be used to spy into its territory, despite assurances from Washington that THAAD is purely defensive. The United States is looking for China to use its influence with...

When the US went ahead and started setting up an anti-missile defense system in South Korea on Wednesday, it brought out bottle-throwing protesters, riot police... //snip// Today, South Korean and US national security advisers agreed that the deployment was moving ahead smoothly, South Korea’s presidential office said.

THAAD makes the use of NK weapons less certain of success, therefore, it acts as a deterrent. Whose interest does it serve to remove THAAD? China and North Korea. So when you argue to remove a deterrent, keep in mind that you are arguing in favour of those needing to be deterred. Do any South Koreans want to be ruled by the system used in the North? This seems doubtful. So the logic compels us to ask why some South Koreans would want to argue in favour of North Korea’s having weapons against which the South has no credible deterrent...

Chinese cruise passengers put patriotism above tourism by skipping South Korean port visit SHANGHAI (Reuters) - When the Costa Serena cruise ship steamed into the South Korean tourist island of Jeju, Bai Liyun stayed on board, where crew had organised a magic show, games and even a wine-tasting. She was not alone. Most of her Chinese shipmates, estimated by passengers to number more than 3,000, followed suit, in a show of solidarity with their government's vociferous opposition to South Korea's decision to deploy a controversial missile defence system. "We spent the whole day on the cruise ship. I felt very...

A sophisticated missile defense system being delivered to South Korea may give President Trump a bargaining chip that no other U.S. president has had to pressure China to rein in North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs. Beijing has long expressed anger over the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) shield, and on Wednesday, just two days after the Trump administration announced the start of the system’s deployment, Chinese officials suddenly signaled that they may be ready to increase pressure on Pyongyang. In an unusual and public proposal that analysts say exposed Beijing’s growing alarm over the situation on the Korean...

YONGSAN GARRISON, Republic of Korea --- U.S. Forces Korea continued its progress in fulfilling the Republic of Korea (ROK) – U.S. Alliance decision to install a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on the Korean Peninsula as the first elements of the THAAD system arrived in the ROK. North Korea’s repeated nuclear and ballistic missile tests have underscored the importance of the Alliance decision to deploy THAAD. Work continues to operationalize THAAD as quickly as possible. “The timely deployment of the THAAD system by U.S. Pacific Command and the Secretary of Defense gives my command great confidence in the support...