The U.S. Forces Korea carried out a training exercise to transport Patriot missiles from the U.S. military’s Japan base, officials confirmed Friday.

The emergency deployment readiness exercise, the first of its kind, is to validate the 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade’s ability to “integrate external ballistic missile defense assets into Korean theater of operation” -- an area where armed conflict takes place – via the sea.

U.S. missile defense assets based in the Far East is to be integrated in cases of emergency and the training was to prepare for such procedure, military officials said.

The soldiers assigned to B Battery, 1st Battalion, 1st ADA Regiment in Okinawa Japan arrived at the Kunsan Air base in North Jeolla Province on July 9. They were to exercise their equipment during their two-week field training alongside A Battery, 2nd Battalion, 1st ADA Regiment.

A unit of PAC-3 missiles arrived at Busan Port on July 13.

PAC-3 missiles, which were involved in the exercise, is expected to play an integral role in air defense against North Korea‘s ballistic missiles.

South Korea and the U.S. recently decided to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system by the end of next year, against the North’s missile threats, but the advanced missile defense system can only intercept missiles at higher altitudes of over 40 kilometers and under 150 kilometers.

The Defense Ministry said lower-altitude missiles -- namely the short-ranged ballistic missile Scud that makes up a large part of Pyongyang‘s arsenal -- will be intercepted by the Patriot missiles.

Seoul is slated to upgrade the PAC-2 missiles in the peninsula to PAC-3 by 2020.
 

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)