U.S., South Korean armies test fire offensive missiles in response to North Korea
COURTESY U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
An undated photo of the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), a long-range guided missile that gives operational commanders the immediate firepower to delay, disrupt, and destroy threat forces.
The U.S. and South Korean armies test-fired offensive missiles today into South Korean territorial waters in a demonstration “countering North Korea’s missile launch/nuclear test” earlier in the day, the Eighth U.S. Army said.
The show of force used the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System and South Korea’s Hyunmoo Missile II.
“The ATACMS can be rapidly deployed and engaged and provides deep-strike precision capability, enabling the (South Korea)-U.S. alliance to engage a full array of time-critical targets under all weather conditions,” Eighth Army said in a release.
The ATACMS rockets carry a 500-pound high explosive warhead and have a maximum range of 300 kilometers, or 186 miles.
The U.S. Defense Department tracked a North Korean missile launch today at 4:41 a.m. Hawaii time. “We assess that this missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile, as had been expected,” said Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis.
After North Korea first flight-tested an ICBM on July 3, the United States and South Korea conducted an initial barrage of ATACMS and Hyunmoo Missile II test-firing along the east coast of South Korea.
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On July 7, two U. S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam conducted a 10-hour flight mission with South Korean and Japanese fighter jets.
The mission was “in response to a series of increasingly escalatory actions by North Korea,” including the July 3 ICBM test launch, said Pacific Air Forces, headquartered at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
“North Korea’s actions are a threat to our allies, partners and homeland,” Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, the Pacific Air Forces commander, said in a release at the time. “Let me be clear, if called upon we are trained, equipped and ready to unleash the full lethal capability of our allied forces.”
