According to a Defense News article (the article is not up on their site yet), the ROK JCS(Joint Chiefs of Staff) has given LMB options for joining the U.S. BMD. The options are:
1. Providing a location for an interceptor launch site.
2. Joining the BMD development program.
3. Paying part of the cost for deploying BMD in Korea.
4. Purchasing an US missile defense system and linking it with the US BMD system.
If these actions become a reality, it will be a 180 degree turn from the previous administration, which refused to join BMD, because of not wanting to anger North Korea.
Of course, considering that the ROK considers a locally integrated lower-tier defense more of a priority, in addition to the costs and technical challenges of adopting BMD, don’t expect the above to become reality soon.
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The Ministry people I worked with during the Rho administration were very consistent about the expense of a development program. I’m a little surprised one of the options did not include radar-only basing like Shiriki. At one time the THAAD program office had been interested in a Pusan-located site for radar R&D testing. Perhaps the last option is likely, adding ROK PAC3s to the current US sites in Korea. And I suspect option 1 might be long-range interceptors for use against missiles targeted at the US. It’s too early in the morning for me to think clearly! Can’t wait to read the article.
Interesting development about bone mineral density — that’s what you meant by “BMD,” right? If you Google for definition of BMD, that is what you will pretty consistently find.
Of course, you could possibly be referring to ballistic missile defense, but I’m only guessing.
I suggest in future postings we go way out of our way to spell out an acronym at least once when introducing a topic.
Oh come on tomcoyner, what’s with the nitpicking? I mean it’s obvious from the wording and the link that the post was refering to ballistic missile defense.
And from the looks of it at least one Canadian guy got the meaning of the word. Which begs the question. Does this mean that Canadians are smarter than Americans?
Agree with Tom, some spelling out could have been useful. I mean, look at these sentences:
“the ROK JCS has given LMB options for joining the U.S. BMD”
“Purchasing an MD system and linking it with US BMD system”
“refused to join BMD, because of not wanting to anger the DPRK”
That’s a poorly written post. This is inaccessible to anyone not very familiar with these terms.
I’m kind of surprised that Tom isn’t familiar with the issue of ballistic missile defense.
Anyway, I’ve added translations to the acronyms.
Well, that’s two Americans who can’t understand the post.
I guess Canadians are smarter than Americans after all.
I’m with Tom: It’s good style to define acronyms so even us dim waygooks can understand. Although I know the ones in question, thanks Mins for clarifying your post.
For the U.S., I believe we call these systems TMD (not BMD), for Theater Missile Defense. The acronym may have gotten torqued by Naver or the ROK JCS after having the phrase translated several times back and forth between English and Korean.
should have read “back and forth…”
I agree with you, Mins, I don’t expect to see the ROK join the US Missile Defense (MD) plan anytime soon. The current Korean plan will give similar coverage to a PAC-3 shield, which is probably good enough for its own needs. Joining MD would be expensive, and Korea would largely lose control of any units that fall under MD.
#2,
I thought it was for “Beer of Mass Destruction”…or “Bong of Mass Distortion”.
I’m happy to finally see some smart decisions from the president.
South Korea has been developing its own ballistic missile defense system for a while now. The SAM-X project is slated to deploy Patriot missiles this year so its good timing by LMB.
Actually, I’m an American in Iraq. Why the Canuk flag is there puzzles me. PAC3 (Patriot) is good for a protecting a base or small part of a city. If Seoul wants to prevent bullying from the Chinese (who’d shoot from deep in China) Patriot batteries are irrelevant since the incoming missile is too fast. You’d need something like THAAD instead. I’ll be interested to see how this plays out.
China’s warmongering is going to lead to a deployment of a THAAD system but I think the primary focus right now are the patriot missile defense system and system of drones to counter artillery.
China isn’t a threat and it may not be a threat for a decade or two depending on Russia’s willingness to sell technology.