A group of U.S. Senators recently introduced a new bill that aims to improve the capability and capacity of U.S. homeland missile defenses. The Advancing America’s Missile Defense Act of 2017 would authorize the emplacement of an additional 28 Ground-based interceptors (GBIs) at Ft. Greely, Alaska, and accelerate the development of several new interceptor systems,...
This past weekend, North Korea conducted a major military parade, an annual affair to commemorate the birth of Kim Il-sung. The event included the conspicuous display of many missiles and artillery pieces, which together demonstrate the nation’s firm intent to develop new and longer-range capabilities, as well as its overall reliance upon such military forces....
In policy pronouncements over the last two administrations, the protection of the American homeland was regularly identified as the first priority of U.S. missile defense efforts. Homeland missile defense today is provided by the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program and other elements of the larger Ballistic Missile Defense System...
This page provides downloadable versions of all illustrations found in Missile Defense 2020: Next Steps for Defending the Homeland. Illustrations are organized by chapter, in the order of their appearance in the report beginning in Chapter 1. Follow the links below to jump to a specific chapter. Click the images for higher resolution. All graphs...
Should North Korea fire a long-range ballistic missile in anger, America’s only line of defense is an integrated system of interceptors and sensors known as the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system (GMD). The program currently provides a thin layer of defense against small-scale attacks of relatively unsophisticated missiles. This level of protection, however, will be strained...
Gaps in coverage leave interceptors less-equipped to defeat the threats of tomorrow. No missile defense is better than the sensors that tell the interceptors where to go and what to kill. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, draws upon considerably more sensors for homeland defense than when operations began in 2004, but shortfalls remain....
This chart shows the Missile Defense Agency budget movements made by each committee in both the House and Senate. The green highlighted columns show the final totals of the authorization and appropriations acts. Ultimately, the appropriations bill sets the final total for Missile Defense Agency spending in fiscal year 2017. The final column shows the...
This interactive feature is archived. It was published and last updated in January 2017. Among the concerns of the NATO alliance in the post-Crimea era is the increase in Russia’s anti-access area denial (A2AD) capabilities. A2AD forces are classified as those that contribute to denying an adversary’s forces access to a particular region or otherwise...
These interactive features show the relative intensity of missile and missile defense-related activity across the Arabian Gulf which has occurring as part of the ongoing Yemen conflict. Beginning in June 2015, the bulk of missile incidents have occurred along Yemen-Saudi border around the cities of Najran, Jizan and Abha, but Houthi acquisition of longer-range missiles have permitted attacks as far as Riyadh.
This study explores the growing competition for scarce dollars at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). It traces the authorities, roles, and missions assigned to the agency and the growing trend of using what was originally intended to be a research and development budget for procurement and sustainment of missile defense assets. As adversary missile...
