Dear Members and Friends,

Over the weekend, North Korea in total defiance and “acting very, very badly” along with China telling the United States to be “cool headed” (link to CNN Article), fired up a new type of rocket engine for ICBM lift to make North Korea more capable and more reliable in delivering heavier payloads to include nuclear weapons into space and targeting of those weapons to the homeland of the United States of America. (Link to Reuters article)

“The whole world will soon witness what eventual significance the great victory won today carries.” -Kim Jong Un speaking after North Korea’s rocket engine test, March 19th (Link to Kim Jong Un’s quote)

This direct threat by Kim Jong Un and North Korea of intent and continual evolutionary testing of capability to hold hostage the United States and its 300 million population to nuclear ICBMs is a ridiculous intolerable proposition that the United States must never enable and allow for the safety and protection of its people and homeland. To further enable and accept this preposterous situation of a nuclear rogue regime dictator supported by a near peer competitor to the United States that would hold our population at extreme risk and proliferate this type of behavior to other anti-American regimes around the world is unacceptable in any form. North Korea has become truly inadmissible and options to eliminate the North Korean Nuclear threat are wide ranging, complex, leveraging economic and military force that are not only being considered but shifting to being implemented.

“If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe that requires action, that option is on the table,” -Tillerson, March 17th  (link to Secretary Tillerson’s quote)

“North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been “playing” the United States for years. China has done little to help!” -Trump, March 17th Tweet  (link to President Trump’s tweet)

China has the keys to the North Korea kingdom and it is China that will be calculating the risk of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s actions, whether he is replaceable or if he remains effective in the stability of the region from a Chinese long-term and current perspective. This upcoming decision by China with an aggressive new U.S. President who is clearly putting significant pressure on China and believes in the art of the deal, brings a historic opportunity to resolve the Korean Peninsula quagmire. Eliminating the North Korean nuclear capability and ballistic missile threat to the United States and the region that would include North Korean regime leadership change in exchange for withdrawal of significant U.S. forces from the Peninsula, enabling the Republic of Korea to take over, fund and resource its own defense, keeping the armistice (non-reunification) in place would serve both China and the United States best interests.

“Tillerson assured Xi of the Trump administration’s commitment to the principles of ‘no confrontation, no conflict, mutual respect, win-win cooperation,'” according to an editorial in English-language China Daily.

It is imperative that during these upcoming tense bravado exploits of an accelerated boisterous threat of North Korean nuclear capability from a leader bent on self-survival, that the United States homeland is 100 percent defended against a breakout of North Korean nuclear capability. It is of great assurance and greater confidence that we have a reliable, capable ballistic missile defense system deployed today that absolutely continues on the right path with the chartered course laid out to get better and better. It is the nation’s only backstop, in case all else fails and an irrational decision takes place from North Korea to defend and protect our 300 million plus people.

Here is our ballistic missile defense system that protects the United States, it provides limited ballistic missile defense for all 50 states, however, coverage, shot opportunities and battlespace varies with Hawaii having the least amount of shot opportunities against North Korean ICBMs.

The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system is the only interceptor system deployed today for the U.S. homeland defense against North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) threats. There are 38 Ground-based Interceptors (GBIs) deployed today, 34 siloed at Ft. Greely in Alaska and 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB) in California. GBIs are tipped with the Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), which uses kinetic hit-to-kill technology to destroy incoming warheads. There are currently three generations of EKVs on the 38 current GBIs: the Capability Enhancement-I (CE-I), Capability Enhancement-II (CE-II), and the Capability Enhancement-II Block I (CE-II Block I). A majority of currently deployed GBIs are fitted with first-generation CE-I EKVs, with a small number being configured with second-generation CE-IIs and the newest interceptors being CE-II Block I capable. The U.S. currently plans to deploy another six GBIs to Ft. Greely by the end of the year, increasing the total number deployed to 44.

There are a total of six land-based sensors that are active across the world and fused together to provide overall missile warning and tracking with some limited discrimination for GMD in the protection of the U.S. homeland. GMD is also provided additional tracking and discrimination by sea-based sensors distributed throughout the Pacific Oceans on Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense capable ships and a Sea Based X-Band radar (SBX). In total, there is one Sea-Based X-band radar (SBX) and 33 Aegis BMD-capable ships to draw from with SPY -1 configured radars that are able to provide tracking of ballistic missile threats from North Korea to the U.S. homeland. Critical to GMD are the DSP and SBIRS space-based sensors, which together provide the first identification and first early-warning of launches from North Korea to the U.S. homeland. All of these interceptors, radars and sensors on land, sea and space based platforms are all fused together to provide the best firing solution by the GMD Fire Control Centers (GFC) located in at the GMD site in Fort Greely, Alaska and the C2BMC (Command and Control, Battle Management and Communications) site in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The United States homeland defense system today is limited by U.S. policy in capacity and capability. New upgraded boosters are needed for the current GBI interceptors and replacement of the three variants of EKV for a Redesigned Kill Vehicle (RKV) for the GBI are being put in place with a future Multiple Object Kill Vehicle (MOKV) down the line. Providing Hawaii additional ballistic missile defense capability and fully maximizing Fort Greely, Alaska to add 60 more GBIs for a total for a 100 interceptors in silos is imperative. Adding a third eastern United States site for more battlespace opportunities should be seriously considered for Iran and future threats as well as research and development on transportable GBIs that could be forward based and on current and future GBI sites.

The United States needs to be fired up to defend the United States from North Korea.