Washington Examiner:
A bipartisan group of senators wants the government to explore how to expand United States missile defense systems to a new realm: space.
“We’re in unique times, and we need to explore all means of protecting ourselves,” Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told the Washington Examiner.
Schatz is one of the most liberal members of the Senate, but the looming threat of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons program has prompted him to collaborate with Alaska Republican Dan Sullivan and six other senators across the ideological spectrum on a broad missile defense bill.
Their proposal calls for “the development and deployment of a space-based sensor layer” to aid 28 new ground-based interceptors in detecting and downing incoming ballistic missile attacks.
“Our nation’s missile defense is a critical insurance policy that protects Americans and our allies from a nuclear catastrophe,” said Sullivan, whose home state — along with Hawaii — is much more vulnerable to ballistic missile attacks than the continental United States. “Top military leaders have been sounding the alarm, saying it is only a matter of ‘when, not if,’ Kim Jong Un will get the capability to range cities in the continental United States with a nuclear inter-continental ballistic missile”…
