Today’s T.H.A.A.D. Test: Close — And the Cigar
(Washington, D.C.): Today, the United States’ most advanced ground-based anti-missile
weapon
— the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system — conducted its ninth test. The test
is said to have accomplished sixteen out of seventeen test objectives, according to the Pentagon
“demonstrating the integrated performance of the entire system” and putting it very near the
target. Unfortunately, the one unrealized objective occurred because, while the interceptor came
very close to the target, it did not perform the desired terminal hit-to-kill maneuver. The THAAD
is, nonetheless, clearly continuing to make progress toward meeting all of its design requirements.
The right response to today’s results should be to augment and, if possible,
accelerate the
program so as to accomplish the system’s full validation and deployment at the earliest
possible time.
Of course, opponents of missile defenses are sure to deny the THAAD’s progress, arguing
that
this less-than-complete success justifies the program’s cancellation. It would be a serious mistake
— and a national scandal — if the Clinton Administration or the Congress were to do so, thus
denying America’s forward deployed and vulnerable armed forces near-term defenses against
existing and emerging theater missile threats.
Accelerate the Program
If anything, the need for a missile defense system capable of intercepting short- and
medium-range
ballistic missiles has only grown since the THAAD system was initiated. For example, press
reports indicate that North Korea has deployed several mobile No Dong ballistic missiles capable
of hitting almost all of Japan. The recent, overwhelming votes in both the House and Senate
supporting deployment of a national missile defense system reflect the recognition in Congress, at
least, that the threat is outpacing our ability to counter it.
The recent successful test of the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) system is further
evidence,
moreover, that American hit-to-kill missile defense technology works. On 15 March, the PAC-3
intercepted and destroyed an incoming tactical ballistic missile target. There is every
reason to
believe that, if the THAAD program is provided with the resources and the programmatic
latitude it needs in this critical phase of its development, it too will perform this feat.
The Bottom Line
As the powerful lead editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal (see the
U.S. government’s policy actually becomes one of defending its people and their forces and allies
overseas against ballistic missile attack, the technology will be available to do it. The question is a
matter of will. An early test of that will should be evident in whether the THAAD
program
is allowed to progress rapidly in its validation flight tests and be all that it can be to defend
against the present danger of short-to-medium-range missile attack.
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