Text Fwd: US Wants S. Korea, Gulf States, India, Germany In Missile Shield

* Informed by Rick Rozoff
09-22-2009 21:50
South Korea Negative on Joining US Missile Shield
By Jung Sung-ki, Staff Reporter

South Korea has no plan to participate in the U.S.-led global ballistic missile defense (BMD) network, an official at the Ministry of National Defense said Tuesday.

The remark came in a response to a local news report that the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama may ask South Korea to join the missile shield initiative despite its recent modification of the BMD plan.

In a major policy reversal, the U.S. government announced that it would scuttle plans to build a massive ground-based missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland that the previous Bush administration intended to use to counter the threat posed by Iranian ballistic missiles.

Instead, Obama favors shorter-range ground- and sea-based missiles positioned closer to Iran, similar to the systems being put in place in South Korea against North Korea's missile threat.

The report cited a report written by the Missile Defense Agency affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense, describing South Korea as one of the nations to potentially join the BMD effort.

The report categorized South Korea, Bahrain, France, Germany, India, Qatar and some other nations as the ``nations expressing interest in missile defense.''

Pundits say the categorization could be construed as a sign of a U.S. future request that South Korea take part in the missile defense plan.

``There has been no change in our position not to participate in the U.S. BMD network since the previous Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations,'' the official said, asking not to be named.

The Obama administration has made no request on the issue to the Seoul government, and there has not been any bilateral consultation on that matter, he noted.

Washington has long sought Seoul's participation in its BMD initiative, but the previous liberal governments here were negative about the issue, citing financial constraints and anti-U.S. public sentiment.

The atmosphere apparently changed since the inauguration of President Lee Myung-bak in February last year as the conservative government puts a priority on developing the Seoul-Washington alliance into a strategic partnership that looks beyond the Korean Peninsula.

Sources say the Lee government wants to cooperate with the U.S. BMD plan, short of fully joining the system, to improve interoperability with the U.S. military after 2012, when South Korea takes over operational control of its forces during wartime from the United States.

Currently, South Korea is on track to build an independent theater missile shield that can intercept short- and intermediate-range missiles from North Korea. The low-tier missile shield, aimed at intercepting targets about 40 kilometers north of Seoul, will include refurbished PAC-3 interceptors from Germany and reach initial operational capability by 2010.

Full operational capability is expected by 2012, when two sets of missile early-warning radar systems and three 7,600-ton KDX-III Aegis-equipped destroyers will be in service. South Korea's Navy has commissioned two Sejong the Great-class destroyers armed with the Aegis air warfare defense system built by Lockheed Martin and plans to set afloat one more ship by 2012.

Aegis destroyers are armed with Raytheon's tactical SM-2 Block IIIA/B ship-to-air missiles. The Navy also is eyeing the state-of-the-art SM-6 extended-range missile being developed by Raytheon and the U.S. Navy.

Last week, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced a plan to purchase Israel's Super Green Pine ballistic missile early warning radars with a detection range of more than 500 kilometers.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr

Text Fwd: S. Korea to acquire new missiles for Aegis destroyer

Yonhap news, June 28, 2009

S. Korea to acquire new missiles for Aegis destroyer

By Lee Joon-seung

SEOUL, June 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea plans to acquire 40 new surface-to-air missiles within the month for its Aegis destroyer, a military source said Sunday.

The government source, who declined to be identified, said all of the U.S.-made Standard Missile-2s (SM-2) will be loaded on to the 7,600-ton King Sejong the Great destroyer.

The 166-meter-long ship, equipped with a phased array SPY-1D radar, can track up to a thousand targets simultaneously at a range of 500km and intercept threats from up to 150 km away. It has been used to detect long-range ballistic missiles fired by North Korea that were 1,000 km away.

The destroyer is currently the largest surface combat vessel in the South Korean Navy and can carry up to 80 SM-2s in vertical launch systems. It is also armed with locally made anti-ship missiles, a 127mm cannon, 30mm Goalkeeper close-in-weapons systems and lightweight, rolling airframe missiles.

The 40 SM-2s, which will arrive by the end of June, are extended-range models and can hit targets up to 160km away. They will allow the South Korean ship to fully use its advanced detection, tracking and attack capabilities, the source said.

The missiles are the main anti-aircraft munitions used by the U.S. Navy and have evolved over the years to deal with threats coming from various altitudes and those equipped with advanced electronic counter measures. They may also be used against ballistic missiles.

Related to the missile purchase, the U.S. government in May notified lawmakers that it has authorized the sale of 46 SM-2 Block IIIA and 35 Block IIIB missiles to South Korea under the foreign military sales arrangement.

The military source said that Seoul is looking to acquire next-generation Extended Range Active Missiles, also known as the SM-6 system, from Washington along with Patriot-3 (PAC-3) missiles by 2014. The PAC-3s can be deployed at sea and are designed to intercept ballistic missiles.

yonngong@yna.co.kr