US Expands Alaska Flight Restriction Zone... Strengthens Northern ICBM Surveillance

Six New Flight Restriction Zones Established in the Alaska Area

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The United States has expanded the no-fly zones around Alaska. This measure is aimed at detecting North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

According to Voice of America (VOA) on the 16th, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced on the 7th that it will establish six new no-fly zones around Alaska.

The FAA explained that this is a measure to protect aircraft from the High-Intensity Radio Frequency (HIRF) of the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), specifying that the LRDR is operated for the purpose of responding to North Korea's long-range missiles. The FAA added that under U.S. law, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) installs the LRDR to protect the United States from North Korea's long-range ballistic missile threats and places it in an optimal location to support the defense of the U.S. mainland.

It also stated, "The mission of the LRDR program is to support the U.S. mainland defense capabilities of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program," explaining that this radar "will provide long-range midcourse discrimination, precise tracking, and hit assessment to support ground-based midcourse defense capabilities against long-range missile threats from North Korea and Iran."

The Long Range Discrimination Radar is equipment capable of early detection of long-range ballistic missiles. It identifies and tracks missiles launched toward the United States during their midcourse flight phase and supports Ground-Based Interceptors (GBI).

It is known to be able to track space objects such as debris from ballistic missile warheads separated in space beyond the atmosphere, up to 5,000 km away, and is expected to be equipped with the capability to track hypersonic missiles in the long term.

Earlier, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced in December last year that it had installed the Long Range Discrimination Radar in the Clear area of Alaska.

North Korea declared a moratorium in April 2018, stating it would suspend nuclear tests and ICBM test launches, but broke this moratorium by launching an ICBM to an altitude of 6,200 km on March 24 of this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.