The Missile Defense Agency has redeployed the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system equipment from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii via four USAF C-17 airlifters. Soldiers at Ft. Bliss, Tex., moved the equipment by road from White Sands to Biggs Army Airfield at Ft. Bliss and prepared it for loading onto the airlifters, performing much as if they were making a real tactical move of the THAAD system. Just to be safe, they first practiced on C-17 mockups, according to an MDA release.
The Pentagon is significantly bolstering airpower near Venezuela, dispatching the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to Latin America, it said in an Oct. 24 statement. The announcement came just hours after U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers and other U.S. assets flew near the Venezuelan coast on Oct. 23.
