The Drive:


The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency has suggested that portions of a future Aegis Ashore site on the strategic American island of Guam in the Pacific could go into bunkers underground or onto mobile platforms. Ostensibly, this is due to Guam’s terrain and limited overall space, but it also speaks to the potential vulnerabilities of such a facility, especially in a major conflict with a near-peer adversary, such as China.

The Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) director, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Jon Hill, provided these and other details about the current state of plans for an Aegis Ashore capability on Guam at an event that Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank hosted earlier this week. U.S. military officials have publicly said in the past that their goal is for this site, whatever its configuration might be in the end, to be operational by 2026.



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