US to deploy Aegis destroyer in Sea of Japan in Sept.

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 23, 2004

US to deploy Aegis destroyer in Sea of Japan in Sept.

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The U.S. Navy will deploy a destroyer equipped with the Aegis combat system in the Sea of Japan in September as part of efforts to build a missile defense network to protect against possible attacks from countries such as the DPRK, Navy Secretary Gordon England said Monday.

''As part of the president's directive to accelerate the fielding of a BMD (ballistic missile defense) initial defensive operations capability...the Navy will deploy in the Sea of Japan, beginning this September and on a virtually continuous basis thereafter a guided missile destroyer to serve as a long-range surveillance and tracking platform,'' England said in a speech in Washington.

''This means that in just six months, we will have queuing and target data from this region of the world that can be instantaneously shared with command and control and ground-based elements of our layered defense system,'' he said.

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is pushing for an initiative to build a worldwide multilayered missile defense network by combining air-, land- and sea-based systems to intercept ballistic missiles with various ranges in their ascent, intermediate and descent phases. It plans to begin to deploy such systems this year.

England said the deployment of an Aegis destroyer with long-range missile tracking and surveillance capability in the Sea of Japan will be the first step of the three-phase approach by the Navy.

The step is intended to cope with threats of attacks by the DPRK's Nodong and Taepodong ballistic missiles.

As the second stage, the U.S. Navy will begin deploying an Aegis cruiser with the newly developed Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) system in 2005 to counter both short- and medium-range ballistic missile attacks, he said.

The Navy plans to complete the third phase in spring 2006, by which 10 destroyers equipped with the SM-3 system will be deployed to carry out operations ''against a wide variety of missile threats from virtually anywhere in the world,'' England said.

The deployment of a Navy destroyer in the Sea of Japan will coincide with the U.S. military's plan to put on alert several ground-based interceptor missiles at Fort Greely, Alaska, by September.

Source: agencies

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