US deploys radar ready to counter North Korean missile threat

(Baonghean.vn) - The Pentagon has deployed high-tech radar to monitor North Korea's ability to launch long-range missiles in the coming months, a US defense official said on January 12.

X-band radar system (SBX 1) passes over the waters of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

This is the first US military response to Pyongyang's announcement that it could launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The X-band (SB-X) radar system is capable of tracking long-range missile launches and providing critical data.

The radar, based at a port in Hawaii, has been deployed several times in the past to monitor North Korean missile activity. But it can only stay at sea for an undisclosed amount of time, so military officials are trying to time the most important moments.

Normally, SB-X is deployed north of Hawaii and placed halfway to Alaska, to get the optimal point of observation for a possible North Korean missile launch toward Alaska, Guam or the West Coast of the United States.

Defense officials are stressing that if North Korea were to conduct an intercontinental ballistic missile test, it would be shot down by a US missile defense system.

“If it is a threat, it will be intercepted. If it is not, we don’t have to do it. First of all, it is more beneficial for us to save our interceptor inventory and secondly, to collect intelligence from the flight path than to do it when it is not a threat,” the defense minister told reporters on January 10.

The SB-X radar will help the US increase its ability to collect data on that type of missile.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently said that the ICBM test launch is in its final stages.

US officials continue to insist they do not believe the North Koreans have the technology needed to re-enter the atmosphere.

To date, there have been three-stage long-range rocket launches with a satellite in the nose that was propelled into space. According to US officials, the two technologies have many similarities, but the success of attaching a warhead has not been proven.

Phu Binh

(According to CNN)