South Korea Angry Over US Plan To Redeploy Critical Air Defense System To Mideast

We previously highlighted that Zelensky’s biggest current worry is that the Iran war and ongoing major US operations there will starve Ukraine of critical arms, and especially long sought-after and expensive anti-air systems and munitions.

It’s not just Ukraine expressing alarm, but now South Korea too, with President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday loudly complaining about Washington’s plans to redeploy Patriot air defense batteries from the Korean Peninsula to the Middle East in order to bolster regional defenses against Iran.

Lee voiced his clear opposition, but his political intervention didn’t work. “The USFK may dispatch some air defense systems abroad in accordance with its own military needs. While we have expressed opposition, the reality is that we cannot fully push through our position,” the Korean leader told reporters.

He did temper his remarks by saying that withdrawal of some systems “does not hinder deterrence strategy towards North Korea” – given superiority of these systems over what Pyongyang has in its arsenal.

Nearly 30,000 American troops are maintained and rotated across bases in South Korea, along with missile defense systems, for decades seeking to provide a ‘check’ on the nuclear-armed north.

At times the US has even docked advanced nuclear submarines at peninsula ports, which has raised the temperature higher – often with surprise North Korean missile tests.

Meanwhile, some local media indicate several Patriot missile batteries have already been moved out of Osan Air Base, potentially heading to American outposts in Saudi Arabia or the UAE, though officials in Seoul have not confirmed this.

Korean media precisely lays blame on the new US operation launched against Iran:

The United States, engaged in a war with Iran, has begun relocating part of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system deployed in South Korea to the Middle East, the Washington Post (WP) reported on the 9th (local time), citing two U.S. Department of Defense officials.

According to the WP, the U.S. military expended $5.6 billion (approximately 8.26 trillion Korean won) worth of ammunition in the first two days of airstrikes against Iran, rapidly depleting advanced weaponry. As advanced weapon stockpiles neared exhaustion, the U.S. military has been redeploying air defense assets from the Indo-Pacific region. Additionally, Patriot interceptor missiles are being diverted from other regions to counter Iran’s drone and ballistic missile attacks.

However, the same report highlighted that the Pentagon seeks to control the narrative: “These measures are not due to a shortage of weapons in the Middle East but are preventive steps in anticipation of the Iran crisis potentially prolonging,” one US official was cited in WaPo as saying.

Had seen unconfirmed reports that Iran destroyed a huge, expensive radar system central to Patriot/THAAD in Qatar: here Foreign Policy casually confirms it, says it will take 5-8 years to rebuild, and that another destroyed in Bahrain will take 12-24 monthss to replace. https://t.co/sHlMjtVB6v pic.twitter.com/aHrcaCQxm2

— Richard Seymour (@leninology) March 6, 2026

This after the past week has seen several reports that Iranian ballistic missiles took out a number of extremely expensive anti-air systems in the Gulf region, and even all the way over to Jordan. But the extent of damage and potential destruction of these systems, after ten days of Operation Epic Fury, remains in question and the Pentagon is likely going to keep much information classified.