The President of the United States, in reaction to North Korea’s growing nuclear ballistic missile capability and other evolving missile threats to the United States, stated yesterday “We’re going to be increasing the anti-missile by a substantial number of billions.” A missile defense report and plan on expanding our nation’s missile defense capability and capacity by President Trump’s administration is expected to be announced next week (link).

Clearly driving this initiative are three major paradigm shifts that have come to a tipping point:

1. Current and previous United States policy in the prevention of nuclear proliferation to North Korea has failed, enabling the precedent of a rouge nation holding the United States and its Allies nuclear hostage and further proliferating nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities to other nations.
2. North Korea’s successful demonstration of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), with acknowledgement of miniaturized nuclear warheads, shows a capability and intent that will be mass produced to overmatch the current defensive capacity of the United States and its Allies to defeat those systems.
3. China and Russian support of North Korea’s economy and its aggressive actions towards the United States and its allies in the region, along with direct material support for North Korean ballistic missile capabilities, demonstrates the value they place on North Korea.

Substantially increasing the United States missile defense capabilities, by increasing the budget by billions of dollars, puts forward the tools to increase capacity and new generational capability to devalue and negate North Korea’s current and future nuclear ballistic missile proliferation and increases the protection of America and its Allies. This strategic movement to substantially bring forward more capability of defense against North Korea sets up an upcoming policy change, from prevention to an acceptance of a nuclear rouge nation, that would entail clear distinct red lines of serious repercussions and consequences should they be crossed. China and Russia must take concerning notice, as with increased U.S. capacity and new generational missile defense that will not be limited by current U.S. policy in the 2010 Ballistic Missile Defense Review, United States missile defense will be peer capable and peer dominate in the air, sea, land and space domains. This investment of missile defense dominance by the United States devalues North Korea’s actions to China and Russia.

Between now and when the plan is unveiled, implemented, and executed to produce new capability and more capacity into the existing missile defense of our nation and our allies, the United States must address increasing the current reliability of its interceptors across all of its systems and fusing its discrimination sensors with persistent capability, to provide more efficiency that gives more capacity from its limited numbers.  It is absolutely critical for the national security of our nation that substantially more annual testing, with operational realism, be done on all existing missile defense systems to demonstrate reliability and to increase inherent capabilities beyond requirements of these systems.

Space and Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAV) Directed Energy platforms, with global discrimination, with cross domain fires coupled with algorithmic, cyber and electronic warfare is where we are likely heading with next generational missile defense systems, which will not be limited to only ballistic missiles.

In the remote possibility of a deal of all deals to change regime and denuclearize North Korea in exchange for reduced or withdrawal of U.S. forces off the Korean Peninsula, a marked significant investment of billions in missile defense will be the art of the deal.