Defense One:

The Defense Department of Defense has dithered as China builds ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles to attack Guam, America’s most important military base in the western Pacific. The good news is that the Pentagon is finally requesting nearly $1 billion for the island’s missile defense in the 2023 budget. But seeing it through on time will require assertive congressional oversight and action.

China has spent 20 years developing its ability to threaten U.S. facilities inside the first and second Pacific island chains. (Guam sits astride the second chain.) This includes a large number of short-range ballistic missiles that can hit U.S. airfields in Japan, as well as a smaller number of anti-ship ballistic missiles that can threaten U.S. aircraft carriers and other warships. The Chinese have even developed the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile specifically to place Guam at risk. Complementing these ballistic missiles are ship-, submarine-, and bomber-launched cruise missiles that can strike with great precision from any direction. China is also aggressively pursuing hypersonic missile variants that could easily strike the island.

So, what’s to be done? A good place to start is by understanding the four essential elements of effective missile-defense for Guam. They include: (1) radar that can spot any missile coming from any direction; (2) a weapons-control system that links the various radars and weapons on the island, at sea, and in the air or space; (3) enough launchers to intercept everything from ballistic missiles arriving from outer space to sea-skimming cruise missiles ; and (4) a command-and-control system that enables the safe and effective integration of fires and deconfliction of airspace.

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