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US Conducts Military Maneuvers Off Guam    [

    US Activates Missile Defense Amid North Korea Concern
    By Will Dunham
    Reuters

    Tuesday 20 June 2006

    Washington - The United States has activated its ground-based interceptor missile-defense system amid concerns over an expected North Korean missile launch, a US defense official said on Tuesday.

    The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a Washington Times report that the Pentagon has switched the multibillion-dollar system from test mode to operational, after being in the developmental stage for years.

    "It's good to be ready," the official said.

    Asked whether the United States would try to shoot down a North Korean missile, Pentagon press secretary Eric Ruff declined to answer directly.

    "We have a limited missile defense system," Ruff said. "We don't discuss the alert status or the specific capabilities."

    US Northern Command spokesman Michael Kucharek declined to comment on the alert status of the ground-based interceptors, but said, "As the command tasked with homeland defense, US Northern Command is prepared to do what is necessary to defend this nation," on land, sea, air and in space.

    The United States has built up a complex of interceptor missiles, advanced radar stations and data relays designed to detect and shoot down an enemy missile, but tests of the system have had mixed results.

    The system is based on the concept of using one missile to shoot down another before it can reach its target.

    The United States has installed nine interceptor missiles in silos at Fort Greely in Alaska and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. In addition, US Navy vessels with long-range tracking and surveillance capability ply the Sea of Japan.

    "There's real caution in how to characterize it so as to not be provocative in our own approach," the defense official said of the move to activate the US system.

    US officials say evidence such as satellite pictures suggests North Korea may have finished fueling a Taepodong-2 missile, which some experts said could reach as far as Alaska. The Pentagon and State Department have said a North Korean missile launch would be seen as provocative.

    Creation of a missile defense system has been a goal of many US conservatives dating back to a space-based plan envisioned two decades ago under President Ronald Reagan.

    In eight intercept tests of the US ground-based missile defense system, the interceptor has hit a mock incoming warhead five times. Such testing was suspended after interceptors failed to leave their silos during tests in December 2004 and February 2005 - failures blamed on quality-control issues.

 

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    US Conducts Military Maneuvers Off Guam
    By Eric Talmadge
    The Associated Press

    Tuesday 20 June 2006

Amid concerns over North Korea's possible missile test, US conducts military maneuvers off Guam.

    Hagatna, Guam - As tensions with North Korea rise, three US aircraft carriers filled the skies with fighters Tuesday for one of the largest US military exercises in decades off this small island in the Pacific.

    For the first time ever, a Chinese delegation was invited to observe the US war games. As the show of American military power began, North Korea one of the region's most unpredictable countries was rattling swords of its own.

    The maneuvers, dubbed "Valiant Shield," bring three carriers together in the Pacific for the first time since the Vietnam War. Some 30 ships, 280 aircraft and 22,000 troops will be participating in the five-day war games.

    The exercises are intended to boost the ability of the Navy, Air Force and Marines to work together and respond quickly to potential contingencies in this part of the world, US military officials said. Even US Coast Guard vessels were participating.

    "The exercises are taking place on land, sea, air, space and cyberspace," said Senior Master Sgt. Charles Ramey. "They cover the whole spectrum."

    The maneuvers mark the first major operation in this remote US territory about halfway between Hawaii and Japan since the announcement last month that some 8,000 Marines would be moved here from Okinawa as part of the biggest realignment of US forces in Asia in decades.

    Though planned months ago, they come amid heightened concern in Asia over North Korea.

    Officials in the United States, South Korea and Japan say they believe North Korea is preparing to test launch a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile. The missile is believed to be able to reach the western United States.

    Pyongyang shocked Tokyo by launching a Taepodong that flew over Japan's main island in 1998. North Korea claimed the launch successfully placed a satellite in orbit, but that has been widely disputed.

    North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed on a moratorium on long-range missile launches during a summit with Japan in 2002. Pyongyang has honored that agreement since, but Tokyo has threatened to impose sanctions if it goes through with a launch this time.

    Military officials here had no comment on the activity in North Korea, or on what specific tactics or scenarios are being used in the exercises.

    They stress, however, that the exercises have been opened to outside observation and are not intended to provoke North Korea.

    "These exercises are not aimed at any one nation," said Cmdr. Mike Brown.

    The exercises are instead intended to provide training in "detecting, locating, tracking and engaging" a wide range of threats in the air, land and sea.

    Representatives from China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Russia and Singapore were invited to attend.

    China's presence has been singled out as particularly significant.

    Though military relations between Beijing and Washington cooled when an American spy plane was captured in 2001, senior US military officials are cautiously trying to mend the rift. At the same time, the Pentagon has expressed strong concern over the secrecy that shrouds China's rapidly modernizing military.

    Adm. William J. Fallon, the top US commander in the Pacific, said before the exercises began that implicit in the invitation was the expectation that China would reciprocate.

    China's 10-member delegation includes one top-ranking officer each from the People's Liberation Army, air force and navy, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.

    "The invitation to observe the US military exercises is a very important component of exchanges between the militaries of China and the United States," Xinhua quoted an unidentified Defense Ministry official as saying.

    Along with the USS Kitty Hawk, Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln carrier strike groups, US fighters and B-2 bombers operating out of Guam's Andersen Air Force Base will join the maneuvers.

    Brown said the exercises were to be held again next year, and then become a biennial event.