North Korea Watch: Missile Defense Agency Ready for North Korea Missile Launches

Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) – Aegis Ship-Based BMD

Reuters: US interceptors were ready for NKorean missile

The United States placed its interceptor missiles in Alaska and California on alert for the long-range North Korean missile that failed less than a minute after being launched, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The launch of Pyongyang’s intercontinental Taepodong 2 missile, and at least five shorter-range missiles, marked the first time the fledgling U.S. anti-missile shield has been officially reported to have been primed in response to a specific event.

Flap would not call the Missile Defense Agency fledgling and it is my understanding that the missile defense shield has been operational a number of times on and off over the past two years.

The U.S. Northern Command, which operates the interceptors in Alaska and California as part of its homeland defense mission, said it was “able to determine quickly the missiles posed no threat to (the) United States or its territories.”

The Northern Command said its personnel detected the launches immediately after North Korea’s first series of test-firings.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters, “What I will tell you is that each and every launch was detected and monitored and that the interceptors were operational during the missile launches that took place.”

In the case of the Taepodong 2, which fell harmlessly into the Sea of Japan about 40 seconds after launch, there was “far too little time to make a decision on whether to shoot it down,” said Victoria Samson, an expert on missile defense at the private Center for Defense Information.

Flap handicaps a first use scenario of missile defense (although important to shield the United States) may first be tested when North Korea fires a missile at Japan or South Korea.