华盛顿-美国海军的部署终端高空区域防御炮台陆军领导人周一表示，对以色列和大约100名士兵来说，操作它将增加陆军防空部队本已困难的压力，并可能推迟其导弹防御系统的现代化。
该服务的两位最高领导人拒绝提供细节国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀下令部署周末的时候。但他们泛泛地谈到了他们的担忧，因为乌克兰战争和升级导致对THAAD和爱国者导弹电池的需求增加以色列与伊朗支持的真主党和哈马斯武装分子之间的冲突.
“防空、炮兵界是压力最大的。陆军部长克里斯汀·沃穆斯说，他用的短语指的是作战的速度。“我们只是不断努力尽可能遵守纪律，并在奥斯汀部长考虑未来的作战部署时，向他提供所需的信息，以准确评估部队的压力。”
沃穆斯说，军队必须小心“我们所承担的”。但当然，在这个动荡的世界里，你知道，有时我们必须做我们必须做的事情。”
五角大楼周日宣布了在THAAD的部署，称这是在总统乔·拜登的指示下授权的。美国官员表示，该系统将从美国大陆的一个地点转移到以色列，它和士兵将需要几天时间才能到达。这些官员在匿名的情况下讨论了部队调动的细节。
这一举动加剧了国防部内部日益紧张的关系美国有能力向乌克兰运送的武器以及由此给美国的军事准备和保护国家的能力带来的风险。
“每个人都想要美国陆军防空部队，”陆军参谋长兰迪·乔治将军周一在美国陆军协会年度会议上回答记者提问时说。"这是我们部署最多的编队."
派遣THAAD的决定是在以色列被广泛认为准备对叙利亚做出军事回应的时候做出的伊朗10月1日的袭击当时它向以色列发射了大约180枚导弹。以色列已经拥有了多层的防空系统，但是真主党无人驾驶飞机袭击一个军事基地周日有四名士兵死亡，另有七人受重伤，凸显了加强保护的潜在必要性。
自2023年10月8日黎巴嫩激进组织开始向边境发射火箭以支持其盟友以来，以色列军队和黎巴嫩真主党战士一直在冲突加沙的哈马斯。周日的无人机袭击是自以色列发动空袭以来真主党最致命的一次袭击地面入侵黎巴嫩大约两周前。
Wormuth在会议上说，由于THAAD的部署只涉及大约100名士兵，它不会给防空部队增加巨大的额外压力。
但这加快了他们的部署速度。自从伊拉克和阿富汗战争的狂热步伐平息后，军方试图确保服役人员有足够的时间在家训练和重新部署。
缩短所谓的驻留时间会影响军队留住优秀士兵的能力。
“他们非常好，但显然部署一年，回来一年，再部署一年——这对任何人来说都很难，”乔治说。
他说，军队正在寻找一系列的方法来限制对招聘和保留的影响包括扩充军队和系统现代化，这样就可以用更少的士兵来操作它们。
但是重复的部署使得系统很难进入可以升级的仓库。
沃穆斯说，结果是，当作战指挥官去奥斯汀要求在中东建立另一个爱国者系统时，军队领导人试图尽可能清楚地表明他们的观点一个给乌克兰.
“我们需要能够把这些设备带回家，以便能够完成现代化进程，”她说。“因此，我们试图为奥斯汀部长做出安排，以便他可以权衡这些风险——基本上是当前和未来的风险——就是否将爱国者派往这里或那里向总统提出建议。”
Sending a THAAD air defense system to Israel adds to strain on US Army forces
WASHINGTON --The deployment of a U.S.Terminal High Altitude Area Defense batteryto Israel and roughly 100 soldiers to operate it will add to already difficult strains on the Army's air defense forces and potential delays in modernizing its missile defense systems, Army leaders said Monday.
The service's top two leaders declined to provide details onthe deployment ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austinover the weekend. But they spoke broadly about their concerns as the demand for THAAD and Patriot missile batteries grows because of the war in Ukraine and the escalatingconflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah and Hamas militants.
“The air defense, artillery community is the most stressed. They have the highest ‘optempo’ really of any part of the Army,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said, using a phrase meaning the pace of operations. “We’re just constantly trying to be as disciplined as we can, and give Secretary Austin the information he needs to accurately assess the strain on the force when he’s considering future operational deployments."
Wormuth said the Army has to be careful about "what we take on. But of course, in a world this volatile, you know, sometimes we have to do what we have to do.”
The Pentagon announced the THAAD deployment Sunday, saying it was authorized at the direction of President Joe Biden. U.S. officials said the system will be moved from a location in the continental United States to Israel and that it will take a number of days for it and the soldiers to arrive. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of troop movements.
The move adds to what have been growing tensions within the Defense Department about whatweapons the U.S. can afford to send to Ukraine, Israel or elsewhere and the resulting risks to America's military readiness and its ability to protect the nation.
“Everybody wants U.S. Army air defense forces,” Gen. Randy George, Army chief of staff, said Monday as he and Wormuth took questions from journalists at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference. “This is our most deployed formation."
The decision to send the THAAD came as Israel is widely believed to be preparing a military response toIran’s Oct. 1 attack, when it fired roughly 180 missiles into Israel. Israel already has a multilayered air defense system, but aHezbollah drone attack on an army baseSunday killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others, underscoring the potential need for greater protection.
Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon have been clashing since Oct. 8, 2023, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets over the border in support of its allyHamas in Gaza. The Sunday drone attack was Hezbollah's deadliest strike since Israel launched itsground invasion of Lebanonnearly two weeks ago.
Since the THAAD deployment only involves about 100 soldiers, it won't add a tremendous amount of additional strain on air defense forces, Wormuth said at the conference.
But it adds to the pace of their deployments. Since the frenetic pace of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has subsided, the military has tried to ensure that service members have sufficient time at home to train and reset between deployments.
Shrinking that so-called dwell time can have an impact on the Army's ability to keep good soldiers in the force.
“They're very good, but obviously deploying for a year and coming back for a year and deploying for a year — it's tough to do for anybody,” George said.
He said the Army is looking at a range of ways to limitthe impact on recruiting and retention, including growing the force and modernizing the systems so that it takes fewer soldiers to operate them.
But the repeated deployments makes it difficult to get the systems into the depots where they can be upgraded.
As a result, Wormuth said, Army leaders are trying to make their arguments as clear as possible when combatant commanders go to Austin and ask for another Patriot system in the Middle East or anotherone for Ukraine.
“We need to be able to bring these units home to be able to go through that modernization process,” she said. “So we’re trying to lay that out for Secretary Austin so that he can weigh those risks — essentially current versus future risks — as he makes recommendations to the president about whether to send the Patriot here or there.”
