A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, launcher is displayed on Guam, Nov. 30, 2023. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)
The Pentagon has already moved prototype gear to Guam ahead of the development of an updated missile defense system there, an Army official said this week.
The unspecified equipment was delivered last fiscal year to the U.S. island territory, Jeannie Sommer, a program director with the Army’s Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, said Monday during a Guam defense online forum run by the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.
Similar equipment was also shipped to South Korea, she said.
U.S. officials see Guam’s defense as critical to deterring a Chinese attempt to invade Taiwan, which Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to reunify by force if necessary.
Construction of the $8 billion Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense System is expected to begin on Guam next year. The project’s environmental impact statement is available for public comment until Jan. 8.
The system is expected to incorporate the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System and the Navy’s Aegis Combat System found on Arleigh-Burke-class guided-missile destroyers.
The system will include radars, sensors, launchers, interceptors and support facilities at numerous sites on the island to provide continuous 360-degree protection against cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missile attacks.
Guam is home to major military installations, including Naval Base Guam, Andersen Air Force Base and the new Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz. The island has long been called the U.S. military’s “tip of the spear” in the Indo-Pacific, owing to its proximity to the South China Sea, North Korea and China.
Sommer didn’t identify the prototypes delivered to Guam but said capability expected on the island would include the Integrated Battle Command System, the Indirect Fire Protection Capability launcher, the Sentinel A4 and Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor radars and M903 launchers.
Soldiers have been rotating to the island and training with prototypes, Sommer said.
“These prototypes really under traditional acquisition would be sitting at White Sands Missile Range undergoing continuous testing there, but we’re getting them into the hands of soldiers early,” she said.
Feedback from the soldiers is being incorporated into the design process, which results in faster delivery, Sommer said.
“Learning in an operationally relevant environment versus a controlled test environment is paying enormous dividends already, even though the capability’s only been there a few months,” she said.
The project, Sommer said, aligns with a Nov. 7 message by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said the Pentagon is revamping how the military buys weapons.
Hegseth, speaking to military leaders and defense contractors in Washington, said the “objective is simple: transform the entire acquisition system to operate on a wartime footing, to rapidly accelerate the fielding of capabilities and focus on results.”
The first capabilities of the missile defense system will be delivered in fiscal 2027, Sommer said.
“What we will do is deliver the initial capabilities and we will incrementally improve over time to realize the full operational capability just a few years later,” she said.
Guam already has some defenses, including the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system, but those capabilities are often supplemented by guided-missile destroyers.
Completion of the missile defense project will alleviate the need for those destroyers to protect Guam, Riki Ellison, founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, said during the online forum.
