Missile interceptor program with operations on Kaua'i changes name

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — The Army's Theater High Altitude Area Defense program, or THAAD, which will involve missile launches from Kaua'i's Pacific Missile Range Facility, has changed its name, though not its acronym.

The new name is the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, which officials said better reflects its role in the nation's Ballistic Missile Defense System. THAAD seeks to intercept incoming rockets in the final phase of flight. Other missile defense systems target different phases of the flight path.

The program is testing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and is expected to launch from Kaua'i over a four-year period starting in fiscal year 2005 or 2006. The Army last year determined there would be no significant environmental impact from the proposal for up to 50 launches during that period.

Rockets mimicking enemy missiles would be fired from the Kaua'i range and Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The THAAD interceptor missiles would be fired from sites on land, on board ships and on aircraft.

THAAD's goal is to protect troops on the battlefield by destroying enemy missiles while they are still in space or high in the atmosphere so the debris does not fall on troops.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.