American Military News

While the United States prepares to defend against next-generation hypersonic weapons, it must remain vigilant against the threat posed by an old foe: ballistic missiles.

Case in point – on Jan. 8, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps fired at least a dozen Fateh-110 and Qiam-1 ballistic missiles at a base in Ain al-Asad and another in Erbil, destroying several buildings and causing 34 U.S. soldiers to be hospitalized for traumatic brain injuries. While the Patriot System would likely have prevented the damage and injuries, none were deployed at either base. In response to the growing threat of ballistic missiles in the Middle East, U.S. partners and allies in the region had rushed to acquire Patriot and other U.S.-made missile defense systems. As a result, the U.S. couldn’t field enough missile defense intercept systems to protect all of its own forces and installations in the region.

However, it would be a mistake to rush-order missile defense systems to the Middle East and lose sight of the global threat environment. On Dec. 31, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said his country no longer felt bound by a self-declared moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, and that North Korea “should more actively push forward the project for developing strategic weapons.” By that, he almost certainly meant resuming tests of North Korea’s newest intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Hwasong-14 and -15, both of which can likely reach the continental U.S.

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