Texas-designed THAAD missile defense system stands guard against North Korea THAAD system was engineered in Grand Prairie, is operated by Fort Bliss

People watch a ground-based interceptor missle take off at Vandenberg Air Force base, California, on﻿ Tuesday in a test of U.S. defense capabilities against a nuclear warhead launched from North Korea. ﻿ People watch a ground-based interceptor missle take off at Vandenberg Air Force base, California, on﻿ Tuesday in a test of U.S. defense capabilities against a nuclear warhead launched from North Korea. ﻿ Photo: GENE BLEVINS, Stringer Photo: GENE BLEVINS, Stringer Image 1 of / 60 Caption Close Texas-designed THAAD missile defense system stands guard against North Korea 1 / 60 Back to Gallery

The crisis over North Korea's nuclear missile program is centered almost 7,000 miles from Texas, but there's a strong Lone Star connection to the conflict.

The new state-of-the-art U.S. missile defense system being counted on by America and its allies to protect against an attack from North Korea was designed in Texas at the Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control facility in Grand Prairie, smack in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

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Like many Pentagon projects, this one is known by its acronym -- THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. It's still being tested and is yet to see its first use in combat, but U.S. military leaders consider it one of the world's most advanced missile defense systems and are confident it'll work.

It's not the first time that Lockheed Martin's Grand Prairie facility is involved in well-known missile programs. The Patriot anti-ballistic missile defense system also was largely developed there.

One of the THAAD system's key components is the giant floating X-Band Radar, a self-propelled structure longer than a football field. The 280-foot-high structure resembles a large offshore rig, except with a massive domed radar instead of a drilling rig.

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The radar, which cost taxpayers almost $1 billion, was built on the Texas coast in Brownsville and Corpus Christi. When it was deployed in 2006, it had to sail around the southern tip of South America because it was too large to go through the Panama Canal. It had a stint at Pearl Harbor for repairs and modifications and is now deployed off South Korea to help guard against attack.

The role of the radar is to detect and track North Korean missile launches and help guide the counter strike to knock them out of the sky. The hit-to-kill technology is meant to work like a bullet hitting a bullet.

There's another major Texas connection: the home base for THAAD is Fort Bliss in El Paso. Soldiers from the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade based there operate the system.