No time in the history of our nation has the United States President, the United States Vice President, and the Secretary of Defense presented together the need for expansion of Missile Defense. It happened today in the Pentagon with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan. Today marks a historic collaboration and expansion of the United States’ mission for missile defense. No longer is the United States bound, which it has been for over 20 years, with presidential intent, policy limitations, and development and deployment of limited missile defense systems to defeat the simplistic North Korean nuclear ICBM threat and future Iranian ICBM missile threat.
“Our goal is simple, to ensure we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anytime, anywhere, anyplace.” – President Trump
“We are committed to establishing a missile defense program that can shield every city in the United States and we will never negotiate away our right to do this.” – President Trump
The case for expansion is supported by unrestrained proliferation of missiles around the world today and the technological advances in cruise missiles and hypersonics by Russia and China.
“Today the number of new missile programs around the world is growing disproportionately to other capabilities. Writ large, the rest of the world is not developing new fighter and bomber aircraft. They are developing missiles. The sheer proliferation of offensive missile capabilities more than 20 nation states today in 2019 makes this review timely and essential.” – Acting Secretary of Defense Shanahan
“Our competitors, including China and Russia, are increasing their existing missile system capabilities, adding new and sophisticated missiles to their arsenals, including hypersonic missiles and advanced cruise missiles. Integrating these more effectively into their political intimidation, anti-access, area-denial efforts, and war planning.” – Acting Secretary of Defense Shanahan
“We are not interested in keeping pace with the emerging threats. We want to outpace them. This requires not just defensive weapons, but a host of enabling technologies that will allow us to integrate the missile defense mission across our department.” – Acting Secretary of Defense Shanahan
Here is a link to the entirety of the Missile Defense Review for your review and we will provide a more detailed analysis tomorrow. Below are a few selected quotes from today’s historic day.
“The U.S. will now adjust its posture to also defend against any missile strikes, including cruise and hypersonic missiles.” – President Trump
“We will ensure that enemy missiles find no sanctuary on earth or in the skies above.” – President Trump
“These new technologies produce new threats and these threats are harder to see, harder to track, and harder to defeat. To our competitors, we see what you are doing and we are taking action.” – Acting Secretary of Defense Shanahan
“This includes hypersonics, space-based sensors, and directed energy for boost-phase missile intercept and includes a policy shift towards greater integration of offensive and defensive capabilities.” – Acting Secretary of Defense Shanahan
“From the Missile Defense Agency to the Space Force and across the Joint Force, we are all a part of the missile defense mission. Now, we will work hand in hand with out industrial base, national labs, and academia, we will work with our allies and partners from Asia to the Middle East to Europe to broaden the shield, from Japanese co-development of a new interceptor to our work with NATO to counter shared missile threats. Like us, our allies and partners have recognized the threat. With us, they have and will share the burden of answering it.” – Acting Secretary of Defense Shanahan
We were very honored to have been extended an invitation to attend the unveiling of the historical expansion of the U.S. missile defense policy in the Pentagon today.
