Above photo: An interceptor moves toward its target after being fired from a vertical launching system on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Dec. 10, 2024. Missile Defense Agency.
With Activation of Missile Interceptor Base.
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) fired from a parachute for the first time.
Several times a year, the U.S. Defense Department launches ballistic missiles from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. These ballistic missiles are generally intercepted by missiles launched 4,200 miles away from the Ronald Reagan Missile test range located in the Marshall Islands.
U.S. officials said the recent U.S. missile test launch was just part of routine and periodic activities to reassure U.S. allies that its nuclear deterrent “is safe, secure, reliable and effective to deter 21st-century threats.”
Guam becomes a bigger military target with a new interceptor site and a new way to launch ICBM missiles—by PARACHUTE
However, several days ago, on December 10, 2024, Guam became an even bigger military target in the Pacific with the activation of a missile intercept site. The Missile Defense Agency carried out its first intercept from Guam of a ballistic missile target, which the agency called a “critical milestone” in the effort to create “a defensive network to shield the American territory of Guam.”
The medium-range ballistic missile target, was PARACHUTED out of a US Air Force Globemaster C-17 cargo aircraft which was flying at an altitude greater than 20,000 feet and 800 nautical miles east of Guam over the Pacific Ocean.
The missile was intercepted off the coast of Andersen Air Force Base, Guam by Lockheed Martin’s Aegis Guam System, which integrates the AN/TPY-6 radar, a vertical launching system and standard missile.
The Defense Department (DOD) plans to conduct two missile tests on Guam each year over the next decade as DOD considers Guam as a crucial location in the event of a conflict with China because it is the westernmost American territory, the closest to the South China Sea, a flashpoint in the region, and because Guam is within range of missiles launched from North Korea.
Tiny Guam is Awash with U.S. Military Bases…and They are Growing
The U.S. military has expanded dramatically its military bases on the small island of Guam. Guam hosts Andersen, Camp Blaz, a massive Marine Corps base still under construction and Naval Base Guam which supplies surface ships and nuclear equipped submarines that are in the Western Pacific.
DOD occupies about 25% of the land on Guam. DOD’s five-year plan outlined in the Future Years Defense Program calls for spending of nearly $7.3 billion on Military Construction on the island from FY 2024 through FY 2028.
According to DOD, future flight tests and tracking exercises from Guam will use interceptors from the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, and Patriot systems and will eventually include the not-yet-fielded Indirect Fire Protection Capability, or IFPC — a mobile, ground-based system used to defeat cruise missiles, drones, rockets and mortars.
Missiles Galore!!! China, North Korea and U.S. conduct missile tests in the Pacific in one month period
On November 5, 2024, according to a press release from Air Force Global Strike Command, airmen and Navy aircrew launched an unarmed nuclear capable Minuteman III ICBM equipped with multiple targetable re-entry vehicles from the Airborne Launch Control System from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
The ICBM’s reentry vehicle traveled approximately 4,200 miles to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands where it was intercepted.
The November 5, 2024 interceptor test came followed the October 31, 2024 test of North Korea’s newest ICBM, which is estimated to be capable of flying over 9,320 miles and designed to reach the United States. North Korea test-fired its new Hwasong-19 ICBM into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
One month prior, on September 24, 2024, China fired a dummy warhead-equipped ICBM into the Pacific Ocean. According to a Pentagon spokesperson, China notified the United States ahead of the test-launch, which the spokesperson said was “a step in the right direction to reducing the risks of misperception and miscalculation.” Analysts said it is rare for China to fire long-range missiles into the sea as it generally tests them unannounced in isolated provinces such as Inner Mongolia. In August 2022, China fired missiles into the waters around Taiwan during war games to express anger at a visit to Taipei by then-Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was also a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and served in U.S. embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the U.S. government in March, 2003 in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.” She is a member of Veterans For Peace, Hawaii Peace and Justice and CODEPINK: Women For Peace.