The new Bob Woodward book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," is reportedly full of bombshells about dysfunction in the Trump administration, but the legendary journalist also dropped a hint about missile defense technology.
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Woodward claims that President Trump questioned the importance of the U.S. military presence in South Korea at a National Security Council meeting in January.
He also questioned why the U.S. was spending money on the region including "a special intelligence operation that allows the United States to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds vs. 15 minutes from Alaska," according to a passage cited by the Washington Post.
Former top economic advisor Gary Cohn was so concerned that the top-secret national security program would be canceled that he reportedly stole a draft letter off Trump's desk that would have withdrawn the U.S. from a key South Korean trade deal, according to CNN.
Alaska is home to Boeing (BA) interceptor rockets at Fort Greely and radar warning systems at Clear Air Force Station.
But what system can detect a North Korean missile in only seven seconds?
A Pentagon spokesman said it was a matter of intelligence and is classified on the defense side.
Budget Clues On Bob Woodward Claim?
Budget requests could hold more clues. Tom Karako, a senior fellow and missile defense analyst at CSIS said that the administration requested $4 billion for missile defense-and-defeat enhancements in September 2017.
Karako said some of that money went to buy more missile defense interceptors but that a lot of other items on the request were classified. But some analysts have speculated that the classified programs could have been improved strike or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities.
"But I would be hesitant to draw too much of a conclusion from a stray comment in the Bob Woodward article," he said. " A 'special intelligence operation' sounds jazzy, but a lot of this stuff is open in terms of the goals of what we are doing."
Missile detection and defense has been a key focus in recent years as North Korea expands its nuclear missile program.
In July, Lockheed Martin (LMT), Raytheon (RTN) and Northrop Grumman (NOC) received multibillion-dollar radar contracts to likely replace Raytheon's massive Sea-Based X-Band Radar.
The new radar is expected to be deployed in Hawaii and have a 180-degree field of view toward North Korea.
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