Tag: GMD

US Military Conducts Successful ICBM Missile Defense Test

| March 27, 2019

Here is some strategic messaging to the Kim regime that the US does have the ability to shoot down North Korean ICBMs with its GMD system:

A pair of long-range, ground-based interceptors launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in the first-ever salvo engagement test of a threat-representative ICBM target, Monday, March 25, 2019.

Salvos by multiple ground interceptors shot down an intercontinental ballistic missile during a test Monday, a “milestone” first-time achievement, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said.
Two ground-based interceptors were used in the test, MDA said in a statement Monday. The first was used to destroy the ICBM reentry vehicle.
The second interceptor “then looked at the resulting debris and remaining objects, and, not finding any other reentry vehicles, selected the next ‘most lethal object’ it could identify, and struck that, precisely as it was designed to do,” the statement said.

The target ICBM was launched from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, more than 4,000 miles from the two interceptors launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
Space-, ground- and sea-based sensors provided real-time target acquisition and tracking data to a command-and-control center during the test, the statement said. The interceptors were then launched beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, where they destroyed the target.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

GMD System Successfully Intercepts A Threat Representative ICBM During Test

| June 1, 2017

I think it is important to remember these tests are in a highly controlled environment, but I think without a doubt it does increase confidence in the only system the US currently has to defend against the North Korean ICBM threat:

VANDENBERG AFB, CA – MAY 30: A ground-based interceptor rocket is launched on May 30, 2017 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The rocket from Vandenberg successfully intercepted and destroyed a target missile in space – most likely above waters east of Hawaii that have been temporarily closed to all shipping. (Photo by Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

The Pentagon announced that the United States on Tuesday tested for the first time its intercontinental ballistic missile defense system, a system designed to foil the types of missiles Kim Jong-un and North Korea have been looking to develop.

According to Reuters, the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) interceptor test took place today at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The test was a success.

“We improve and learn from each test, regardless of the outcome. That’s the reason we conduct them,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said Tuesday. “The system that we test today is a developmental system that’s being flown for the first time and we look forward to understanding the results so we continue to mature the system and stay ahead of the threat.”

While the test is said not to be just about North Korea, the timing indicates that it has everything to do with Kim Jong-un’s recent ballistic missile tests.  [Atlanta Journal Constitution]

That is where many in the media are getting it wrong, these tests are planned out and scheduled years in advance.  The fact North Korea fired ballistic missiles recently as the Pentagon has said had nothing to do with the timing of the test.  Plus this system could not shoot down those missiles anyway.  GMD is only used to defend against ICBMs.  The shorter and medium range missiles that North Korea has been firing recently would be defended against by the THAAD and Patriot missile defense systems.

You can read more about this history of the GMD program at Defense News.

How Can the US Defend Itself From A North Korean ICBM Attack?

| February 1, 2016

That is what the National Interest answers for its readers:

Ground Based Interceptor at Ft. Greeley, Alaska via Wikipedia.

But as with almost all North Korean developments and proclamations from the exalted “supreme leader” Kim Jong-un, it’s hard to say what’s real and what’s a delusional fantasy. Nonetheless, Washington has to take the possibility of a nuclear-tipped North Korean ICBM seriously. What, then, can the United States do to stop a North Korean ICBM that’s headed towards the American homeland?

To a large extent the United States has prepared from this eventuality. The best way to stop a North Korean ICBM would be to eliminate the target before it’s launched. But if the regime in Pyongyang—in a move that would guarantee a devastating U.S. nuclear retaliation—manages to launch a missile towards an American city, Washington has an operational missile defense system in place.

The Missile Defense Agency’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element provides Washington the ability to destroy a limited number of incoming intermediate and long-range ballistic missiles threats in space to defend the United States. There are interceptors already in place at Fort Greely, Alaska, and at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Right now there are a total of thirty interceptors deployed, but there are plans to add fourteen more missiles.   [National Interest]

You can read more at the link about other missile defenses the US has, but first of all launching an ICBM at the US would be a weapon of last resort since the US response would be so devastating against the North Koreans.  Additionally the rocket they are threatening to fire now would be easy to destroy left of launch since it takes days to prepare it for launch.  That is why the North Koreans have fielded the KN-08 ICBM that is road mobile and much more easier to launch.  However, it has never been tested and many have claimed they are mock ups.

For all we know the Kim regime could be playing the same games that Saddam Hussein did with exaggerating his military capability.  However, military leaders have to prepare for the worst case a threat poses and thus why the Kim regime’s threats are taken so seriously.