Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno

gdumat-ol@guampdn.com

South Korea’s highest-ranking military brass, Gen. Sun Jin Lee, chairman of its joint chiefs of staff, recently visited Guam's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, site along with Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of the combined U.S forces in South Korea.

The two generals also visited a line of B-1B bomber aircrafts at Andersen Air Force Base, as well as boarded the visiting ballistic missile submarine USS Pennsylvania at Naval Base Guam.

They jointly held a press conference aimed to send a message to North Korea, that U.S. forces and weapons based on Guam — temporarily or permanently — serve as an extension of America’s capabilities to deal with North Korea if the need arises.

A 210-member task force assigned to the ballistic missile defense system the Pentagon sent to Guam in 2013 after North Korean threats is about 85-percent complete in transitioning from being temporary to becoming permanently based on the island, its commander said Friday.

South Korea, US jointly warn North Korea from Guam

The THAAD system is positioned somewhere in a remote area of Andersen Air Force Base as a layer of defense in the event North Korea or another enemy tries to launch a missile attack at Guam.

The THAAD on Guam is the only such U.S. system positioned outside of the continental United States, said Lt. Col. Jeffery Slown, commander of Task Force Talon, an Army air and missile defense entity that’s responsible for the THAAD.

The task force’s shift from temporary to permanent also meant the relocation of about 50 families to Guam, Slown said. As of Friday, about 40 families of the task force have moved to Guam, he said.

By the end of this year, the task force personnel will be completely, permanently based here, Slown said.

Slown and Lt. Col. Ray Morgan, project manager of the THAAD interceptor from the Missile Defense Agency, gave local media limited access to the THAAD system Friday. Its components include what the Army calls the "world's most-advanced mobile radar," three truck-mounted launchers for the ballistic missile interceptors, a cooling and fire control system, as well as a 1.3-megawatt power generator. The system doesn't rely on the Guam Power Authority grid at any time, according to the task force.

The THAAD showed a 100-percent success rate during test intercepts, Morgan said. It has the capability to shoot down the types of missiles that North Korea has test-fired, including the Musudan, according to Morgan and Slown.

Bombers launch from Guam to display air power after North Korea threat

Guam’s THAAD also has become the focal point of some of the press coverage in recent months in South Korea, where a second U.S. THAAD system is expected to be positioned.

In July, a South Korean media delegation, escorted by the country’s defense ministry representatives, visited the THAAD on Guam.

The THAAD is located in an area at Andersen that’s far away from any residential neighborhood on the base or off base. The hum of the system’s power generator and other activities involving the task force can't be heard, and the system can't be seen, outside of the base and even within the main facilities of the base.