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Terminal HighAltitude Area Defense (THAAD), for merly the ater High Altitude Area Defense, isa United States Army anti-ballistic missile system designed to shoot downshort, medium, and intermediate range ballistic missiles in their terminalphase using a hit-to-kill approach. The missile carries no warhead but relieson the kinetic energy of the impact to destroy the incoming missile. A kineticenergy hit minimizes the risk of exploding convention al warhead ballisticmissiles, and nuclear tipped ballistic missiles will not explode upon a kineticenergy hit, although chemical or biological warheads may disintegrate orexplode and pose a risk of con taminating the environ ment. THAAD was designed tohit Scuds and similar weapon s. According to a statement released on July 7, 2016, the Pentagon announced it is con ducting for mal feasibility studies for placement ofa THAAD battery in South Korea as a defensive measure toensure thesecurity of the ROK(Republic of Korea) and its people and to protectalliance military forces from North Koreas weapon s of mass destruction and ballistic missile threats.After North Korea's reported launch of three Rodon g missiles near the coast of Japan on September 5, 2016, Beijing publicly voiced opposition to sucha deployment, citing con cerns that it would not be "con ducive to strategicstability in theregion, and could intensify disputes."
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