Improve Hawai’i’s Missile Defenses — Now

August 2, 2017

Defense One:

If North Korea’s Kim Jung-un decides to use his all-but-inevitable nuclear ICBM to strike the United States, his target might be Hawai’i. While the U.S. must continue to develop its continental anti-missile systems, it is past time to focus on improving the defenses of America’s 50th state.

Perhaps Pyongyang intends to use this capability as a bargaining chip, or a tool for continued provocation. But Hawai’i, isolated from the U.S. mainland and less well defended against ballistic missiles, might also be the ideal target for an actual DPRK attack. North Korean leaders may think it is the one strike they might get away with while dealing the hated Americans a crippling military and psychological blow. Russian or Chinese leaders in the right set of bad circumstances could reach the same conclusion…

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