Text Fwd: US Exploited Korean Test For Global Interceptor Missile System

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http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090712/NEWS08/907120361/How+U.S.+exp\
loited+N.+Korea+missile+tests
Honolulu Advertiser, July 12, 2009
How U.S. exploited N. Korea missile tests
Navy ship grounding detailed
By Richard Halloran

Publicly, President Obama and senior officials in his administration berated
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il last week for firing 11 ballistic missiles
eastward into the Sea of Japan, four short-range missiles on July 2 and seven
medium-range missiles on July 4. It was the biggest North Korean missile barrage
seen so far.

Secretly, U.S. officials informed on missile defenses were pleased, for two
reasons. First, the elaborate U.S. missile defense in place in Japan, Alaska,
California, Hawai'i, aboard Navy ships and in satellites was severely tested and
worked well. In particular, the fusion of data from sensors based on land, at
sea and in space produced swift and clear images of what the missiles were
doing.

Second, U.S. intelligence gathered information about the missiles that otherwise
could not have been had. An official in Washington said: "We learned an
incredible amount about where exactly North Korea is in their long-range missile
development program." Because North Korea has only aging radar, he doubted that
North Korea "learned anything close to what we learned about their tests."
....
The missiles were sighted by U.S. radar in northwestern Japan near the remote
village of Shariki, then picked up by radar on Shemya in the Aleutian chain of
Alaska and another encased in what looks like a giant golf ball aboard a
seagoing base in the mid-Pacific. A satellite and an Aegis destroyer on patrol
in the Pacific also tracked the missiles.

Missile data were transmitted to a U.S. command center at Yokota Air Base west
of Tokyo, where much was shared with Japan's Self-Defense Forces. The data went
to operations centers in Hawai'i, Northern Command in Colorado, Strategic
Command in Nebraska, the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon, and
to the situation room in the White House.
....
Had Obama given the order to shoot, computers in a fire-control suite in Alaska
would have selected interceptors in Alaska, California, or aboard an Aegis ship
at sea to shoot at the missiles while in mid-course. As a last resort, an
anti-missile missile would have been fired from Hawai'i at the incoming warhead
hurtling down from space.
....
Richard Halloran, formerly a New York Times correspondent in Asia and in
Washington, is a writer in Honolulu.

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