With North Korea and Iran introducing more capable and maneuverable missile systems, the United States should reexamine boost-phase intercept options for improving U.S. homeland missile defense.
NATO’s forthcoming plans to deter Russia includes “significant improvements to our air and missile defenses,” as well as fifth-generation jets, alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday.
Primes are investing their own dollars to meet demand, particularly as the Pentagon plans to invest more than $20 billion in munitions in its next budget.
Make no mistake: The first time someone isn’t looking, Army budgeteers will probably try to use the additional funding to buy trucks rather than THAADs, and Navy budgeteers will try to buy hulls and Tomahawks rather than SM-3s.
To buy 100 PAC-3 MSEs, the Army has sold 100 PAC-3 Patriot Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical missiles to the UAE, collecting $363 million in proceeds.
A space-based sensor layer’s persistent vantage point would provide hostile missile tracking from birth to death, a capability far beyond that of ground sensors.
With Iron Dome shown to be successful and an Arrow missile used to down a Syrian surface-to-air missile, all the layers of Israel’s advanced missile defense have now been put to use.
Congressional authorizers are requiring the Missile Defense Agency director to establish a program that develops the means to intercept hostile ballistic missiles during their boost phase of flight.
Turkey’s top defense procurement office confirmed in late December that Ankara and Moscow had finalized a contract for the acquisition and deployment of the Russian S-400 long-range air and anti-missile defense system on Turkish soil.