US Missile Agency Scales Back Guam Defence Plans

The project is designed to create “360 degree” protection for the U.S. Pacific territory from missile and air attacks of all kinds, the agency said. Plans include integrating Raytheon’s SM-6, SM-3 Block IIA, Lockheed Martin’s THAAD, and the Patriot PAC-3, which uses components from both companies, over about 10 years.

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The project is crucial to the U.S. and its Indo-Pacific allies because it provides a logistical hub far from U.S. shores – Guam is closer to China than it is to Hawaii.

China’s massive conventional ballistic missile inventory includes the DF-26, with an estimated range of about 4,000 km (2,500 miles), which can also carry anti-ship and nuclear warheads. Newer weapons in development, such as the hypersonic glide vehicle DF-27, are drawing increased attention from U.S. military planners.

It’s a forward operating base for long-range bombers, and a port for ships, so that navy ships can sally forth from there,” said Peter Layton, a defence and aviation expert at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia. “Certainly places in Japan and the Philippines are a lot closer (to China)… but a lot more exposed.”

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Retired admiral: Military picked ‘worst possible solution’ for Guam missile defense system

Military and Missile Defense Agency officials have touted a 360-degree integrated missile defense system that would be deployed at as many as 20 different sites across Guam.

But Montgomery said a “distributed network” where the missile defense assets are spread throughout the island could be a problem.

“An Aegis command system would be at the heart of the system…and you can’t distribute that,” said Montgomery, who is a former director of operations for the U.S. Pacific Command and a member of the MDAA board of directors.

Montgomery added that the plan was to put precision strike missiles, such as tomahawks, on trucks.

“The idea was to distribute all these capabilities all over the island and make ourselves a tough target to hit, that’s how the Army fights,” the retired Navy rear admiral said.

But the amount of land such a system would need is of concern to local officials.

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“If you had an Aegis ashore with two (vertical launch systems), that’s 64 more missiles, that’s a ton of missiles,” he added.

An Aegis ashore system, he said, “would cost you 60 to 80 sailors, period. Full stop.”

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And Montgomery said the distributed network plan would require hundreds if not a thousand soldiers and sailors.

“When you do that, you introduce (military construction), you gotta have a commissary, a barracks, an exchange,” he said. “I don’t know what the final cost is, but it’s way over what it would cost for an Aegis Ashore.”

Our First Look At Land-Based Aegis Missile Defense System In Guam