Breaking Defense:
The Obama administration’s 2016 budget request for missile defense investments went up slightly to $9.6 billion for missile defense development and operations, of which $8.1 billion is for the Missile Defense Agency. This increase is quite timely and a testament to the importance of protecting the U.S. homeland against ballistic missiles.
The U.S. missile defense industry is capable of amazing endeavors: an aircraft armed with a chemical laser that can shoot down ballistic missiles in the boost phase, where the most challenging intercepts occur. The industry and American ingenuity can make existing missile defense systems better by putting multiple warheads on a single Ground-Based Midcourse Defense interceptors.
The problem? The Obama Administration gutted these technologies in its first term. Yet the ballistic missile threat continues to advance. Iran is poised to get new technologies and money to improve its already advanced ballistic missile program. Tehran placed a satellite into an orbit in 2015. U.S. Aegis-class missile defense-capable destroyers and SM-3 interceptors are in such high demand that the Navy is welcoming land-based Aegis alternatives to relieve the stress on the fleet.
Military Space
The United States and its allies face a growing threat to our space assets, principally from China and Russia. Just look at the Chinese tests of an anti-satellite missile. Senior DoD leaders, particularly Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work, are increasingly emphasizing the importance of space threats.
It is not clear that the U.S. can respond to the full range of these threats. Will the U.S. attempt to shoot down an anti-satellite missile aimed at one of its satellites? Does it even have that capability? How will the U.S. respond to non-kinetic attacks like jamming or laser dazzling? Does it have the situational awareness to know when this is happening? The country needs to ask and debate these kinds of questions…
