U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director Vice Admiral Jon A. Hill has stated that the first wave of defenses
designed to counter complex missile threats against Guam will include radars, launchers,
interceptors, and a command-and-control system, and they’ll be placed on the island next year.
The MDA asked for more than $800 million in its fiscal 2024 budget request,
to develop and begin constructing its architecture to defend Guam against
several threats including ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles.
Another $38.5 million would upgrade the MDA’s Command and Control,
Battle Management, and Communications program to support Guam’s defense.
The agency is investing in architecture, but it is also partnered with the Army and Navy.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how GUAM is getting major defensive capabilities?
Let's get into the details.
Washington has considered Guam a crucial asset
since it became a territory of the United States in 1898.
It lies in the Pacific east of the Philippines.
Its proximity to China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula hand the US a
launching pad into Asia and as such, it has been built into a military fortress.
The US runs a naval base and Coast Guard station in the south of the island,
as well as an air force base in the north, which was regularly used during the Vietnam War.
Given its proximity to China and potential involvement in any regional conflicts,
Guam is regarded as a significant player in this broader geopolitical game.
MDA is investing in architecture, but it is also partnered with the Army and Navy.
US Army will deliver three Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensors, or LTAMDS,
as well as an assortment of Mid-Range Capability or MRC missile launchers
and Indirect Fires Protection Capability launchers, or IFPC.
The Army plans to procure five total LTAMDS in FY24.
As part of MRC, Lockheed Martin delivered the first Typhoon launcher to the Army late last year,
which uses a Navy MK41 Vertical Launching System
that will fire both ground-launched SM-6 missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles.
To build IFPC prototypes for an enduring system designed to counter both drone and
cruise missile threats in 2021 the Army chose Lidos-owned Dynetics and work is ongoing.
Further, according to the Army’s budget office,
Guam will have the Northrop Grumman-built Integrated Battle Command System designed
to connect the right sensors to the right shooters on the battlefield.
While these capabilities take shape, MDA is adapting the Aegis system to
work specifically on the challenging terrain of Guam, Vice Adm. Jon Hill.
The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System is a United States Department of Defense (DoD),
Missile Defense Agency program developed to provide missile defense against short
to intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
Aegis BMD is designed to intercept ballistic missiles post-boost phase and prior to reentry.
It enables Aegis-equipped vessels like Arleigh Burke Class Destroyers
to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles by expanding the Aegis Combat System with the
addition of the AN/SPY series radar and Standard missile technologies like SM-6
He stated the system will differ from what is found on an Aegis ship
and from the configuration of Aegis Ashore sites in Romania and Poland.
FY24 funding will cover four high-end, solid-state, mobile AN/TPY-6 radars.
These radars will provide a 360-degree capability to see threats, Hill said,
which is a requirement coming straight from U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
MDA is also developing a command suite using Command, Control,
Battle Management, and Communications system technology that integrates IBCS
and Aegis C2 for ballistic and hypersonic missile threat detection and tracking.
While the first set of capabilities will get to the island in 2024,
Hill said the development will continue to evolve as technology becomes available.
Hill noted that there will never be an initial operational capability
for the architecture because capability will always evolve.
For example, once the MDA fields a hypersonic glide phase interceptor,
it will get incorporated into the architecture. That effort is in a very early stage and won’t be
delivered until the early 2030s, Hill said. For now, there is a capability to defeat hypersonic
missiles in the terminal phase of flight using current radars and U.S. Navy capability.
As it embarks on constructing the architecture in Guam, the agency encounters numerous challenges.
“The challenge right now is siting,” Hill said. “We have all the sites identified on the island,
and today we know which are the Army sites, we know which are the MDA sites. It’s a Navy island.”
But, he said, there are environmental considerations.
“When you think about what we have to do for environmental assessments,
just to go land this gear, it puts time into the equation. … Guam is a tourist island.”
Clearing the sites is also difficult, including the need to clear bamboo and flatten land,
Hill explained. “Guam has a boatload of expended ordnance on it from World War
II,” so part of the effort includes digging down to ensure there’s no ordnance buried, he added.
Threat perception of Guam has increased manyfold in the last few years.
Adm. Phil Davidson had earlier told the Senate Armed Services Committee
that the island needs protection as the home of 170,000 U.S. citizens and service members,
a deepwater strategic port, fuel and munition stores and an airfield used to project U.S.
power. Guam would be key to responding to any conflict in the Asia-Pacific region.
Davidson said, “Guam is a target today. It
needs to be defended, and it needs to be prepared for the threats that will come in the future,”
He added later: “China’s own Air Force has put out a propaganda video showing their H-6
bomber force attacking Andersen Air Force Base at Guam and distributed that quite publicly.”
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system as well as Patriot systems are currently deployed in
Guam, which protect against ballistic missile threats. Aegis ships are patrolling the area,
but more needs to be done and this is exactly what is being accomplished.