Integrated air and missile defense is a big concern for the Air Force general in charge of the Pacific realm, he said Monday.
“It’s one that bothers me every day,” Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in downtown Washington. “Our ability to defend against a potential missile attack is one that is a (huge) challenge.”
Carlisle said the largest missile arsenals in the world are, in this order, Russia, China and North Korea, with “most” of those missiles pointed either at the United States or its allies. The United States has 16 of 30 Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) ships, a mix of cruisers and destroyers, in the Pacific. The remaining ships are in the Atlantic. Aegis BMD ships patrol, detect and track ballistic missiles of all ranges, including ICBMs, and report track data to the missile defense system. The United States also has a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in Guam while Japan’s four Kongo-class destroyers have been updated with BMD operational capabilities.
Carlisle said the “pivot to Asia” is alive and well, but was slowed as sequestration canceled many exercises like the critical Red Flag, the Air Force’s premier air-to-air combat exercise. Carlisle called canceling Red Flag a “devastating blow.” But the pivot has been buoyed, Carlisle said, by an increase in engagement by senior U.S. officials like President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Obama recently signed a new defense pact with the Philippines on a Far East trip that also included South Korea, Malaysia and Japan,
Though the Air Force won’t build additional bases in the Pacific, Carlisle said, the ones already established will continue to receive the best technology, “as they have so far.” Those bases will stay at the robust state they are right now into the foreseeable future. Carlisle also said the Air Force is returning to a Cold War-era practice of taking state-side units and rotating them into the Pacific theater every 18 to 24 months.