HUNTSVILLE, Alabama—The U.S. Army is now the acquisition executive for the large-scale plan to defend Guam from air and missile threats and is looking at tying together systems in new ways to meet the mission.

But the outgoing commander of the service’s Space and Missile Defense Command says the mission should not be thought about differently than any of the command’s other responsibilities. 

“The defense of Guam is no different than the defense of any other country,” says Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, who was expecting to retire but is sticking around in the role amid an indefinite hold on Pentagon nominations. “I’m looking at it from a macro level. We have air and missile defense soldiers who defend Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Poland, all sorts of geographic areas that are out there. … I would tell my successor don’t deviate [from] what we’ve learned how to do as air and missile defense professionals.”

Guam will be the same, with the commander’s list of assets to be defended and arrayed sensors and defense systems set up to defend against the threats. 

“You bring in a smart network ... and then you train it, rehearse it, practice it and prepare it for the fight,” he says.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks charged the Army in June to be the acquisition lead for the mission, which is a top priority for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command that has also received substantial plus-ups from Congress. The requirement is a 360-deg., layered system that will protect against ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles, says Maj. Gen. Heath Collins, the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) program executive for ground systems. The goal is for it to be operational by 2027.

The MDA has picked the sites for the first layer of defense, set to be operational by the end of 2024. To get there, MDA plans the first test of the Aegis sensor and its SM-3 Block IIA interceptor by the end of 2024, says Rear Adm. Doug Williams, MDA’s acting director. 

The backbone of Guam’s defense is Northrop Grumman’s new Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) for the Army. It connects Aegis on the islands with other defense systems, including the land-based Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and Patriot batteries, in addition to the Aegis SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors. MDA plans to station four SPY-6 radars of the Aegis system around the island using mobile vehicles. 

To get to operational capability with IBCS along with the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) radar and the Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 launchers, the Army plans a series of assessments as part of the Integrated Fires Test Campaign, says Col. Chris Hill, the Army Program Executive Office Missiles & Space’s program manager for integrated fires mission command. 

This includes a “practice run” connecting IBCS and LTAMDS this year, and then later on connecting more systems including Lockheed Martin’s Remote Interceptor Guidance-360, the Army Long Range Persistent Surveillance and Sentinel A3 and A4 radars, Hill told reporters Aug. 7. IBCS is expected to be first sent to operational units next summer, he says. 

The Army is also practicing connecting systems on Guam and beyond. During an exercise this summer, the service connected THAAD, Patriots, AN/TWQ-1 Avenger air defense systems, AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radars and Stinger man-portable air defenses across the entirety of the second island chain of the Pacific, including Guam. 

“We know that dispersion and flexibility and tailorability and layering is always going to matter, and our forces are going to enable that,” says Maj. Gen. Brian Gibson, commander of the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command. “So doing things today differently with the things that we have, doing things differently with the things that hopefully we’ll have in the future and doing it forward is how we stay focused in the Pacific.”