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MDAA Alert: Real, Visible, and Pronounced

October 31, 2024
A man walks past a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test at a train station in Seoul on Oct. 31, 2024. Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images

The North Korean launch last night is a reality check for the missile defense of our US Homeland and its priority for our National Security. 

The Nuclear ICBM threat to the United States Homeland is Real. It continues to advance in capabilities, increased capacity, and in significant collaboration with Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. United States Nuclear Strategic Deterrence is not enough to adequately defend the United States Homeland and deter the increased threats to the United States Homeland from missiles and drones, whether they are ICBMs, Ballistic Missiles, Hyper Glide Vehicles, Hyper Cruise missiles, or Shahed Drones. United States Missile Defense Policy and Authorities to track and defend against all missile and drone threats must be revamped and changed by the next administration being voted in next week. This decisive decision shift to make our Nation’s Homeland safer than it is today is upon the next President of the United States of America.

The United States Homeland’s confidence for ICBM defense today is based on the reliability of a very limited capacity of 44 ground-based interceptors consisting of two old generations of ground-based interceptors GBI that are over 20 years old and require a multiple shot doctrine for each ICBM threat. These ground-based interceptors located in Fort Greely, Alaska (40) and Vandenberg Space Base California (4) are integrated through the Battle Management Command and Control BMC2 system with terrestrial and space-based sensors. The nation’s Missile Defense Agency is the lead systems integrator for the United States, whom created this architecture that spans all domains as well as developed and acquired our nation’s GMD System. The Command and the Operators of the GMD System is under the U.S. NORTHERN Command, the Army’s SMDC Command and the 100th Missile Defense Brigade. Last Friday, we honored and recognized the excellence of their leadership in this critical, vital mission. 

This GMD system with urgency must have much more capacity and reliability then it does today of 44 Ground Based Interceptors made up of two old generational interceptors types. The nation and its homeland awaits with urgency for the next generation interceptors, full operations of the LRDR and constellations of space based discrimination sensors. 

The U.S. Homeland cannot be confidently and adequately defended today from missiles and drones without major changes of US Defense Policy to have adequate reliability in capacity and capabilities of US Homeland missile defenses combined with left of launch strike and nuclear deterrence.

This requires Urgency and a Presidential Directive.

Respectfully,

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Mission Statement

MDAA’s mission is to make the world safer by advocating for the development and deployment of missile defense systems to defend the United States, its armed forces and its allies against missile threats.

MDAA is the only organization in existence whose primary mission is to educate the American public about missile defense issues and to recruit, organize, and mobilize proponents to advocate for the critical need of missile defense. We are a non-partisan membership-based and membership-funded organization that does not advocate on behalf of any specific system, technology, architecture or entity.

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