Скачать или смотреть Amid latest round of NKorea nuclear talks, U.S. military shows off missiles in Japan

(9 Feb 2007) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of fighter jet landing
2. Wide of PAC-3 missiles
3. Tilt-up of PAC-3 missile
4. Setup of Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Michaelson, commander of the missile battalion at the airbase
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Michaelson, Commander of the missile battalion at Kadena US air base:
"It's a fantastic capability. The PAC-3 is the most capable system in the army's infantry for air missile defence."
6. Various of missiles
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Michaelson, Commander of the missile battalion at Kadena US air base:
"We were initially operating with initial operating capability back in December, we'll continue to train daily en route to full operational capability in the early spring time, late March. But if called to act, we could act today."
8. Various wides of control base
9. Close-up of radar system
10. Wide of antenna system
11. Tilt-up of antenna
STORYLINE:
As diplomats met in Beijing to try to convince North Korean officials to give up their nuclear weapons program, the US military on Friday showed off one of it main deterrents in Japan, a newly operational detachment of state-of-the-art Patriot missiles.
The deployment is part of a multi-billion (b) dollar effort to build a ballistic missile shield in the Pacific to counter the threat of an attack by North Korea, which shocked the region last July with a series of missile tests and then again in October with the announcement of its first nuclear test.
"It's a fantastic capability," said Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Michaelson who commands the 600-troop missile battalion on the Kadena US air base on the southern Japan island of Okinawa.
He added that the missiles, the exact number at the base remains classified, have been operational since late December.
"If called to act, we could act today," he said.
But the PAC-3 missiles are limited in their capability to counter any North Korean launch.
The missiles provide a cover of about a 100-kilometre (about 62 miles) radius, meaning that they would be unable to protect the heavily populated Tokyo or Osaka areas, unless moved there, and are instead more of a "force-protection" weapon to counter any threat to the many US bases on Okinawa.
About 50-thousand US troops are stationed in Japan under a mutual security pact, and most of them are scattered across the crowded island of Okinawa on Japan's southern fringe.
Kadena Air Base is one of the largest US military facilities in the Pacific.

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