House appropriators fund Hawaii missile defense radar, but Guam, you’re F***ed
Island-tipping Marines
As if it wasn’t bad enough that the Navy Department sends enough sailors and Marines there to risk capsizing the island (hat tip to Rep. Hank Johnson [D-GA] for alerting us to the potential for disaster), our far-east island territory is not gonna be getting more missile defense. Hawaii will though.
Guam, situated in the South Pacific is about 3,400km south-southeast of North Korea. The Norks’ latest missile tech can go 13,000km (first tested successfully in 2017), but they now have multiple operational missile systems capable of reaching Guam. Hawaii on the other hand is 7,400km away from North Korea.
Naturally, if you’re a Congressman, putting missile defense in Hawaii is the bigger priority. Both are militarily strategic posts, but one has a population of 167k and the other 1.4m. As a territory, Guam doesn’t even get to cast any votes for US President while Hawaii has four.
Jeff LPH 3 sends;
House and Senate lawmakers have been pushing to boost the Missile Defense Agency’s fiscal 2022 budget, and they continue to advocate for increased missile defense in the Indo-Pacific theater. But House appropriators plan to cut funding to enhance missile defense in Guam.
In the House Appropriations Committee’s FY22 spending bill, the MDA’s $78.3 million request for missile defense for Guam — U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s top unfunded priority — took a $15.9 million hit due to “unjustified growth.”
The agency requested an additional $40 million to procure long-lead items for the architecture in Guam as well. But according to a wish list sent to Congress from the command, more funding — to the tune of $231.7 million — on top of what the MDA requested is needed to move at the desired pace. The list also included funding for a Homeland Defense Radar for Hawaii.
House appropriators did provide $75 million in funding for a HDR-H, which the agency chose not to fund in its budget request. In hearings over the past several months, lawmakers across the defense committees advocated for providing Hawaii the added protection.
House appropriators did not provide a more detailed explanation regarding the cut to Guam’s missile defense.
Yet, the MDA has not finalized or unveiled its plan on how it will enhance missile defense capability on Guam. MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill said the plan is to use mature capabilities, which are believed to include the Aegis Combat System and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system. The Army deployed a rotational THAAD presence to Guam in 2013.
Hill acknowledged in a House Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing last month that he had promised a report to Congress by June, “but given the complexity of it, that’s going to take us a little bit longer to get there.”
Developing the desired protection for Guam is on “a very aggressive timeline, given where we are at,” he added.
More at the source; Defense News.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Congress sucks, Guest Link, Politics
I opened this one eagerly hoping to find references to the Hank Johnson incantations, exhortations, and hallucinations, and was delighted to find you guys are right on top of it.
Boomer is on Guam. I’m sure he’ll have a comment or two on this.
And Boomer is just one of several thousand veterans and retirees on Guam.
I suspect the main reason for Guam being relegated to a lower priority is the fact that our naval infrastructure there is but a fraction of what it is in Hawaii. The single large floating drydock capable of large-ship repairs was shipped out in 2016 further reducing the island’s importance to the Navy.
The only large military presence at the present time is Air Force in the form of Anderson AFB and while it is strategically important, there are only a few thousand personnel stationed there.
And there is little doubt that the Navy rules the Pacific roost and does so from it’s huge footprint in and around Pearl Harbor which is much more strategically important than little Guam.
Tell that to the Frank Cable and the boats that are homeported there (CSS-15.)
Take that away, you’ve just lost a huge piece when it comes to SSN/SSGN support (more SSN, but you get the idea.)
Guam and Yoko are the two main upkeep ports for submarines in the Western Pacific, and the Japanese are real touchy about any sort of nuclear plant maintenance on their soil.
Hey, Sparky, ol’ Poe’s just an old ground-pounder so what does he know?
But I imagine sub tenders can leave port on pretty short notice, especially if the balloon’s about to go up.
A much younger Poe almost got himself in trouble with NCIS one afternoon at Kings Bay Sub Base down in South Georgia when calling on the medical department of the tender, USS Simon Lake.
And all for doing no more than leaning over the rail and looking down at the sub tied alongside. Behind the sail a topside compartment was open with this sled-like device inside with a whole bunch of coiled cable.
Poe’s “Wow! That’s cool! What is it?” got him jerked away from the railing with a non too gentle arm around his neck and hauled inside by an angry physician assistant/warrant officer with terse instructions to forever forget what I’d just seen.
Years later I finally learned that what I’d been enthusing over was a highly secretive towed array sensor.
Boomer just emailed this to me and I’m posting it without his approval because I’m sure he won’t mind his views on this issue being shared with his TAH friends:
Johnson’s ignorant comment concerning Guam tipping over is not new news, but Guam is in the news again concerning the defunding of the island’s missile defense system.
I guess we on this little island are living on the edge, but even the threat of turning into a pile of ashes isn’t about to make me leave it. I’m where I want to be and where I shall end up – next to some friends down on the southern end of the island at the Guam Veteran’s Cemetery. Losing old friends fast these days; just today was informed by his daughter that I lost another friend unexpectedly on July 8th. A retired Navy submariner. I’m shocked.
Anyway, should the drastic event actually take place and Guam either blows up or sinks into the Marianas Trench it’s been nice knowin’ you all.
Another serious something taking place in this part of the world is China’s plan to reacquire another island, one a lot larger than Guam and one I spent a year on…Taiwan. Another beautiful island…so sad.
The world, not just the United States, has become one fouled up one IMHO. Born during the Depression years, but feel I’ve lived in the best of times…until now. Our leadership sucks…take that as literally.
To be fair, the back blast from any counter missile launches just may capsize the island.
…but that’s why they sent all the Marines. As a counterbalance.
“Alrighty, they’re about to fire the port battery. Everyone to the starboard side of the island!”
It won’t capsize but it may shift a few degrees of latitude.
That is Probably why Congressman H. Johnson got so worried, those RADARs are quite heavy, and in order to counter-balance it they would need to send more marines. They don’t have enough crayons to feed them all!!
You’d think that a few millions to beef up the defense of billions of dollars of nearly re-replaceable infrastructure would be money well spent? But what dafuk do I know? Since the overall strategy for the Pacific seems to ceede it to the Chinese Communist PLAN, why spend the money that could be otherwise spent on Burn Loot Murder or worthwhile Social Justice Studies?
Here is a damage control hack in case Guam is hit by a missile and holes it: have enough DC plugs, oakum and mattresses on hand to stop the water from coming up and sinking the island.
Use black oakum and call it Hankum…😆😆😆
Dat’s rayciss
Nowadays, what isn’t?