US missile destroyer arives in Japan.

The USS Mustin has arrived in Japan amidst tension over North Korea's missile tests.

A U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer with the navy's most advanced combat weapon system arrived in Japan on Saturday as tensions surrounding North Korea's missile tests remained high.

The USS Mustin, equipped with missile tracking and engaging systems and with a crew of 300, will be permanently deployed at the navy's Yokosuka base in Tokyo Bay, U.S. Navy spokeswoman Hanako Tomizuka said.

The U.S. Navy now has eight vessels equipped with its Aegis weapon system at Yokosuka, home of its Seventh Fleet. They are scheduled to be joined next month by the Aegis cruiser Shiloh, which last month took part in an exercise off Hawaii that involved successfully intercepting a missile in flight.

Source: Link

Well although everyone is talking about this being dealt with by talks at the moment, it looks very apparent that they are ready for anything. Hardly a suprise though really.
Does this mean the US is plannning on shooting down future test missiles? How will N.K react to the US increasing it's fleet size there? I feel this will just be tit for tat increased aggrevation by both sides until the enevitable happens, with N.K being the main instigators and the US following this up with a show of force. Tough one really.

CX.

This deployment was planned for a long time. It just so happened that she got there right after the tests. It's about a two week voyage or so to get there from the West Coast of the US. 5 days to Pearl Harbor, where they stay for two or three days taking on supplies and having shore leave and checking systems, then another 4 or 5 days or so to Japan.

Originally posted by CX
Does this mean the US is plannning on shooting down future test missiles?

I just have to chuckle a bit, then about vomit when I think about this. rofl. The USA, shooting down another country's TEST missile. HA! You know, if this was China we were talking about here, I could almost vaguely comprehend the twisted reasoning behind that lunacy if China were about to test a missile, say, that had the capability to wipe out all of the USA by itself. But seeing as this is North Korea, who poses a fraction of the military threat to the US versus a country like Russia or China- who I'm sure alerted the rest of the world every single time they tested a missile (yeah, right)- you'd normally think the notion of shooting down a test missile would be insane.

Its not surprising that Japan want the US ships home ported there. It will serve as quite a deterent (well maybe not for Crazy Kim).

Also Japan will be procuring the RIM-161 SM-3 which is a derivative of the SM-2 Block IV for its Aegis destroyers. Couple that with a sizeable US presence and the PAC-3's for terminal defence (No doubt when THAAD is avalible they will get that as well) and you will have a resonable missile defence system in place.

www.globalsecurity.org...

Who knows, they may also eventualy get the ABL-1 for boost phase as well given thier proximity to NK.

There was a recent redesign to the SM-3 based on Japanese request, and they are getting LRS&T abilities added to their Aegis ships.

Originally posted by TrueAmerican

Originally posted by CX
Does this mean the US is plannning on shooting down future test missiles?

I just have to chuckle a bit, then about vomit when I think about this. rofl. The USA, shooting down another country's TEST missile. HA! You know, if this was China we were talking about here, I could almost vaguely comprehend the twisted reasoning behind that lunacy if China were about to test a missile, say, that had the capability to wipe out all of the USA by itself. But seeing as this is North Korea, who poses a fraction of the military threat to the US versus a country like Russia or China- who I'm sure alerted the rest of the world every single time they tested a missile (yeah, right)- you'd normally think the notion of shooting down a test missile would be insane.

well...I have to just about laugh and vomit myself when people with no idea what they are talking about run their mouths but then I remember this is ATS after all!

China, or any country including the US does not have any single missile that can "wipe out the USA"

The N Korean situation is part of the WOT, as Bush named North Korea part of the Axis of Evil.
However, I think this topic is better suited to the Other Current Events Forum.

The DPRK papers will of course be spewing venom about the USA and Japan over these destroyers being so close by. Regardless that they were scheduled to arrive weeks before the missiles were launched. I don't think NK has showed us much of a threat yet, unless they want to show how well they can fill up the sea of Japan with missile rubbish.

Xphiles, I think you'd better re read that post again. Carefully.

Originally posted by TrueAmerican

Originally posted by CX
Does this mean the US is plannning on shooting down future test missiles?

I just have to chuckle a bit, then about vomit when I think about this. rofl. The USA, shooting down another country's TEST missile. HA! You know, if this was China we were talking about here, I could almost vaguely comprehend the twisted reasoning behind that lunacy if China were about to test a missile, say, that had the capability to wipe out all of the USA by itself. But seeing as this is North Korea, who poses a fraction of the military threat to the US versus a country like Russia or China- who I'm sure alerted the rest of the world every single time they tested a missile (yeah, right)- you'd normally think the notion of shooting down a test missile would be insane.

you think the current china can rival the USA???? right now the retarded chinese will do anything to avoid war with america becuase america is chinas biggest trading partner so i dont think that would be good for both nations and the second reason is that the USA will kick chinas arse and you should make a new account named TrueChinaMen instead of TrueAmerican since you think that way of china hehe

edit:china will never catch up with america techwise becuase the USA wont just stop creating new tech so that the chinese can catch up. they just buy all there stuff since there so retarded they cant innovate they just copy everything and the reason i know this is becuase i lived in china for 2 years and it sucked bad! they COPYeverything which is friggin annoying aaarrrgghhh stupid japanese wannabes

[edit on 9-7-2006 by dabomb]

[edit on 9-7-2006 by dabomb]



[edit on 9-7-2006 by sanctum]

I bet very soon we will be deploying nuclear-warhead missiles on Japanese territory like we did in Europe during the Cold War. I'd bet my life we already have nuclear missile boomer submarines in the area.

Wow, second person who did not understand my post at all. Was it that terribly written? Lordy. Well, at least Xphiles had the good sense not to launch into personal attacks about it...

The US is in the process of replacing its older vessels in the region with newer ones and we are in the process of redistributing the bulk of our naval and air forces from the Atlantic/European theater to central and southeast Asia, future conflict is more probable in this part of the world.

"It's not a response to anything. It's just a routine port visit," Lieutenant Trey Brown told AFP of the arrival in Yokosuka of the USS Mustin.

He added that the destroyer, which will remain in the port for a brief time, was sent to replace an older vessel, the USS Vandergrift, as part of a "long-range plan to replace older ships with newer, more capable ships."

The USS Mustin is equipped with the advanced Aegis technology , which enables the tracking of ballistic missiles such as North Korea's long-range Taepodong-2, fired on Wednesday.

The US Navy also plans to deploy the guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh to Yokosuka next month.

Link

Keep in mind that the USS Shiloh just last month successfully shot down a mock warhead (using a SM-3 interceptor) with the assistance of a Japanese destroyer.



[edit on 11-7-2006 by WestPoint23]