(Asia Times-Hong Kong) Stephen Bryen - Should Japan buy the Arrow 3 missile defense system from Israel? Would Israel sell it to Japan? Japan has the U.S. THAAD system, the Patriot PAC-3, and the Aegis naval BMD, but none of these systems are ideal in the face of the North Korean missile threat. The THAAD air defense system can only tackle missiles in the terminal phase of their flight and its tests have only been partially successful. The Israeli Arrow 3 system is the only ballistic missile defense system that has shot down an enemy rocket hundreds of miles from where it was launched. It can hit an enemy missile outside the atmosphere, above 100 km., and has a special type of hit-to-kill system that does not have the limitations of THAAD. It is perfect to meet Japan's requirements for missile defense. Yet Israel rightly worries about any compromises to its strategic systems, and Japan has a poor internal security infrastructure that is not good enough to provide the needed assurances to either the U.S. or Israel. One way to disrupt North Korea's missile testing program is to shoot down its test flight missiles. THAAD may not be able to do the job, nor will Aegis and certainly not Patriot. Israel's Arrow 3 is the only defensive system around that is likely to knock out North Korea's test flights. The writer was the founder and first director of the Defense Technology Security Administration in the U.S. Defense Department.
2017-08-07 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive