The Washington Free Beacon:
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska) will introduce legislation as early as next week to authorize the deployment of dozens of additional ballistic missile interceptors in the U.S. Pacific as part of an effort to confront an increasingly aggressive North Korea.
Sullivan, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday the bill would fortify U.S. missile defense by accelerating the testing and development of new missile interceptors and approving the procurement of 28 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska and California, nearly doubling the current number.
“It’s become very clear that it’s not a matter of ‘if’ anymore, but ‘when’ North Korea is going to have the capability to reach not just Alaska and Hawaii, but the lower 48 states with a nuclear capable ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile],” Sullivan said in an interview.
The legislation also includes a measure that authorizes the Missile Defense Agency to begin building an integrated layer of space-based missile sensors.
Senior Pentagon officials called on Congress earlier this year to allocate funding for space-based missile tracking capabilities given developments in ICBMs that have created fissures in terrestrial missile defense. Sullivan said the new technology would integrate all components of U.S. missile defense to create an “unblinking eye” that could defend against a large-scale attack.
The bill arrives just weeks after U.S. Strategic Command initiated its missile defense posture review ordered by President Donald Trump in January. The review is the first of its kind since 2010.
