By Gerry Doyle
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A proposed multibillion-dollar missile defence system for Guam has been lowered to 16 websites on the island from the unique 22, the U.S. Missile Protection Company mentioned in a draft environmental influence assertion on Friday.
The mission is designed to create “360 degree” safety for the U.S. Pacific territory from missile and air assaults of every kind, the company mentioned. Plans embrace integrating Raytheon (NYSE:)’s SM-6, SM-3 Block IIA, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:)’s THAAD, and the Patriot PAC-3, which makes use of elements from each corporations, over about 10 years.
The environmental influence examine, which started final 12 months and included a public remark interval this 12 months, proposes “deploying and operating and maintaining a combination of integrated components for air and missile defense positioned on 16 sites” on the island. The report doesn’t say why the variety of websites was lowered.
All the remaining 16 websites are on U.S. army property.
The mission is essential to the U.S. and its Indo-Pacific allies as a result of it gives a logistical hub removed from the U.S. mainland – Guam is nearer to China than it’s to Hawaii.
China’s large typical ballistic missile stock consists of the DF-26, with an estimated vary of about 4,000 km (2,500 miles), which may additionally carry anti-ship and nuclear warheads. Newer weapons in improvement, such because the hypersonic glide automobile DF-27, are drawing elevated consideration from U.S. army 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,” mentioned Peter Layton, a defence and aviation knowledgeable on the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia. “Certainly places in Japan and the Philippines are a lot closer (to China)… but a lot more exposed.”
There will likely be public conferences in Guam subsequent month to debate Friday’s report, the company assertion mentioned.
(This story has been refiled to say removed from the U.S. mainland, not from the U.S., in paragraph 5)