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Air Defense on Steroids

By Charlie

First high altitude air defense unit formed at Fort Bliss

FORT BLISS, Texas — The Army's first unit to use a new missile defense system that can knock down missiles and other ballistic weapons inside or outside the atmosphere was officially formed at Fort Bliss on Wednesday.
Alpha Battery, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, will be the first unit to manage and use the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, weapons system.

The missile defense program is more than 15 years in the making. Program commanders said one of the largest benefits to the new technology, to be housed at Fort Bliss, is that it knocks down deadly weapons from landing anywhere near their intended targets.

Some background:

THAAD (Theatre High Altitude Area Defense) missile system is an easily transportable defensive weapon system to protect against hostile incoming threats such as tactical and theatre ballistic missiles at ranges of 200km and at altitudes up to 150km.

The THAAD system provides the upper tier of a 'layered defensive shield' to protect high value strategic or tactical sites such as airfields or populations centres. The THAAD missile intercepts exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric threats.

The sites would also be protected with lower- and medium-tier defensive shield systems such as the Patriot PAC-3 which intercepts hostile incoming missiles at 20 to 100 times lower altitudes.