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S. Korea denies report of receiving THAAD information from Lockheed

Xinhua, April 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

South Korea's Defense Ministry on Thursday denied a news report that the ministry has been receiving information on the U.S. advanced missile defense system from Lockheed Martin, the developer of the system, in preparations for possible deployment of U.S. interceptors on the Korean Peninsula.

Reuters reported Wednesday that Lockheed has provided information to South Korea and the U.S. government to support a possible sale of its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, citing the senior manager for international air and missile business development at the U.S. defense company Dan Garcia.

Defense Ministry's vice spokesman Nah Seung-yong told a press briefing that the South Korean government has not received any detailed relevant information on the THAAD from Lockheed Martin.

Nah said the country's arms procurement agency asked Lockheed in 2013 for some relevant data on the THAAD to use them for research and development of the country's indigenous long-range surface-to-air missiles (L-SAM).

But, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) has received nothing from Lockheed, Nah said.

In 2013, Lockheed made a presentation about the THAAD during an Air Force seminar in Seoul, but there was no specific case except for them, the vice spokesman added.

The THAAD has recently become a hot button in South Korea after some lawmakers of the ruling Saenuri Party called for the deployment of the U.S. missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula. Opposition lawmakers were opposed to it for its ineligibility for missile threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The United States has expressed its willingness to deploy one or more THAAD battery on the Korean Peninsula. A THAAD battery, composed of six mobile launchers, 48 missiles, airborne radar and firing control system, is valued at about two trillion won (1.8 billion U.S. dollars). The forward-based mode radar has a maximum detectable range of 2,000 km.

The South Korean military has been developing its indigenous missile defense system called Korea Air and Missile Defense (KAMD), which aims to shoot down ballistic missiles at an altitude of about 40 km.

The THAAD system aims to intercept incoming missiles at an altitude of 40-150 km. Endi