Landlocked in the southwest of the United States along its southern border with Mexico and between California and New Mexico is the Grand Canyon State of Arizona. The senior U.S. Senator from the State of Arizona is John McCain, who serves in one of the most powerful positions in the world as the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Service Committee, constitutionally responsible for checking the Commander and Chief on the authorization of U.S. military power.
Last week, Senator McCain spoke candidly on the ballistic and cruise missile threat faced by the U.S. military today.
“Over the past year, ballistic missile threats around the world have continued to grow. These dangers have reminded us time and time again why a strong and secure missile defense policy is vital to the security of our nation.”
“At times, North Korea can seem like at the boy who cried wolf- in this case a very rotund boy with daddy issues. After all, its threats are as absurd as they are frequent. Its missile tests often fail, sometimes in spectacular fashion. And the buffoonery of its leadership is notorious. But make no mistake, sooner or later our nation will have to confront the reality of a North Korea with the capability to strike U.S. forces and its allies with nuclear weapons. And when that day comes, and when we face an adversary whose irrationality invalidates the logic of deterrence, we will be counting on strong American missile defense…But it is not just rogue states like North Korea and Iran that should concern us. We also confront threats from great powers like Russia and China…Vladimir Putin views nuclear weapons as an integral part of his strategy to reestablish Russian dominance in the former Soviet Union. He has instituted alarming changes in Russia’s nuclear doctrine, with an emphasis on tactical nuclear weapons and offensive nuclear strikes, and he has made nuclear threats against our allies. Meanwhile, China continues its aggressive behavior in the Asia- Pacific…Its rapid military modernization program is aimed directly at countering U.S. military strengths and pushing our military out of the region. This includes China’s nuclear and missile forces, which have made steady advances in recent years.”
-Senator John McCain, MDAA Arizona Breakfast of Champions, 08-26-2016
The state of Arizona that Senator John McCain represents is responsible for developing and producing the technology needed to defeat and destroy the most dangerous weapons ever created by mankind: nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles and maneuverable cruise missiles. There are 33 Ground Based Interceptors (GBI) today and by the end of next year 44 total are scheduled to be deployed in protection of 330 million Americans in all 50 states against Nuclear ICBMs. All of these interceptors were designed, created and produced in the State of Arizona. There are over 250 short- to medium-range Standard Missile Block IA and IB interceptors deployed on up to 33 U.S. Aegis BMD Ships deployed around the world, 4 Japanese Kongo class Aegis BMD Ships and one Aegis Ashore Site in Romania. These SM-3 interceptors are responsible for defending over 50 million people in Southeastern Europe, 127 million people in Japan, 8 million people in Israel and a majority of our military forces based near the seas and all of our aircraft carriers. A total of over 515 million people in the world today are being protected and defended with the engineering and production from the state of Arizona.
This past Friday in Tucson, Arizona, we had the honor to recognize the state’s excellence in missile defense starting with Senator John McCain, the operators of these systems from the 3rd Fleet of the U.S. Navy, the support from the 12th Air Force of the U.S. Air Force and the developers and engineers from Arizona that have produced the interceptors that are defending over 515 million people today. Senator John McCain and Vice Admiral Jim Syring, director of the Missile Defense Agency, together recognized the GBI production team and validated their success on the newest generation CE-2 Block I interceptor that was tested earlier this year. That interceptor will make up the additional 14 GBI interceptors President Barack Obama requested to be in place by the end of next year. To make the GBI fleet more reliable, the CE-2 Block I interceptor is being considered to replace all of the first generation CE-1 interceptors as risk mitigation against North Korea until the new Redesigned Kill Vehicle (RKV) interceptor is tested, proven and produced two to three years from now.
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| The GBI CE-2 Block I champions with Senator John McCain, Vice Admiral Syring, and Riki Ellison. From left to right: Jerry Madigan, Norman Tew, Senator John McCain, Norm Montano, Phil Joyce, Vice Admiral James Syring, and Riki Ellison |
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| Students from the Advanced Placement Physics class at Arizona’s Amphitheater High School with Senator John McCain |
“I am optimistic that our nation, driving by America’s brightest minds, and the creativity and ingenuity of our innovators and entrepreneurs, will rise to meet the nation’s current and future challenges, and keep our homeland and allied forces secure from those who would otherwise intend to do us harm.”
