by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - The Army's budget request for Fiscal Year 2014 went up for a hearing today before the House Armed Services Committee. Aside from issues regarding the impact of sequestration, the topic of the THAAD was brought up by Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System was deployed on a temporary basis to Guam at the instruction of secretary of defense Chuck Hagel in response to threats from North Korea. During today's hearing Bordallo asked about the possibility of permanently stationing the THAAD in Guam. But Army chief of staff General Raymond Ordierno could not provide a definitive response.

Bordallo said, "I recognize there will be an evaluation of the THAAD deployment in about 90 days but I want to learn more about the army's effort to source the force structure equipment for a more permanent land based missile defense on Guam. The old EIS from 2009 calls for a permanent THAAD and Patriot missile defense task force on Guam so where is the army in the planning for the resourcing of the force structure for this task force?" Odierno said, "We are in the process of building 5 THAAD batteries. We have one built right now the one that is deployed the second one should be finished being built in the next couple months and we will continue to build three more so that will help us to build that capability so as we make decisions based on the joint staff we will then have the infrastructure to support the decisions that are made to operationally deploy these units forward."