Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label South Korea defense

America’s Next Move in Asia: A Japan-South Korea Alliance ( Source- The National Interest /Author- McDaniel Wicker)

Image credits- VOA Source- The National Interest Author-  McDaniel Wicker North Korea’s latest rocket launch has led officials in both Seoul and Tokyo to call for a strong response. In light of Pyongyang’s numerous provocative actions, the United States’ closest allies in East Asia are rightly concerned about the regime. These concerns require Washington to act decisively to emphasize its commitment to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and, more broadly, across the Asia-Pacific region. Toward this end, the current alliance structure must be revamped to create a stronger defense partnership between the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea. A stronger trilateral alliance would ease the overall strain on the United States’ defense capabilities. Moreover, current geopolitical realities make such alliance-building more possible now than at any time in recent memory. Until recently, close cooperation between South Korea and Japan seemed impossible. Hist

South Korea Goes Indigenous for Its Missile Defense Needs ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Benjamin David Baker)

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Gellerj Source- The Diplomat Author- Benjamin David Baker South Korea is going indigenous in its attempt to upgrade its missile defense capabilities. In 2006, the country announced that it would create the Korean Air and Missile Defense System (KAMD), an integrated air-land-sea structure for the detection and destruction of incoming North Korean missiles, including nuclear short-range ballistic missiles. The hardware involved in KAMD currently consists mostly of U.S. and Israeli platforms. The U.S.-designed Patroit PAC-2 and 3, supported by the Israeli EL/M-2080 Green Pine radar, make up the mainstay of the South Korean land-based anti-missile arsenal.  At sea, the Republic of Korea Navy’s (ROKN) Sejeong the Great-class frigates and the Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin-class destroyers are equipped with the U.S. SM-2 Block IIIA/B missiles and AN/SPY-1 radar. That might change. Seoul is set to complement the seaborne SM-2 with an i