U.S. forces in Korea and the South Korean army have put in place new interceptor missiles onto Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) base in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, on Friday, May 29.
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THAAD launchers enter the US military base in Seongju, in 2017 (Picture source: YonHap)
The delivery began late Thursday 28 evening and ended at around 6 a.m. Friday morning. “The new missiles are the same type and quantity as the previous one,” a Korean Defense Ministry official said stressing the current ones reached the end of their operating cycle. The ministry, however, declined to give out the exact number. “No additional THAAD launchers have entered South Korea or the base,” the official added.
The U.S. has installed the THAAD system in Seongju, with a total of six launchers, since 2017 to counter North Korea’s missile threat. There are eight interceptor missiles for each launcher, putting the total number of missiles in South Korea at 48.
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense, is an American anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to shoot down short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their terminal phase (descent or reentry) by intercepting with a hit-to-kill approach. THAAD was developed after the experience of Iraq's Scud missile attacks during the Gulf War in 1991. The THAAD interceptor carries no warhead but relies on its kinetic energy of impact to destroy the incoming missile. A kinetic energy hit minimizes the risk of exploding conventional-warhead ballistic missiles, and the warhead of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles will not detonate upon a kinetic-energy hit.
Originally a U.S. Army program, THAAD has come under the umbrella of the Missile Defense Agency. The U.S. Navy has a similar program, the sea-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, which also has a land component ("Aegis ashore"). THAAD was originally scheduled for deployment in 2012, but initial deployment took place in May 2008.THAAD has been deployed in Guam, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Romania, and South Korea.
