20 items, Page 1 of 2
September 10, 2021
The Missile Defense Review sets “the stage for a high-stakes policy debate between those who value missile defense as an enabler of US grand strategy, and those who fear enhanced missile defense may start an arms race with Russia and China,” write Walter Slocombe and Robert Soofer.
June 24, 2020
Absent any effort to expand or modernize GMD, homeland missile defense will likely fall behind current threats while NGI matures.
April 27, 2020
On April 24, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a Request For Proposal (RFP) for the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI), a new interceptor for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System. According to the release, the solicitation period will conclude on July 31, 2020, with additional extensions available given the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The Pentagon had previously...
November 12, 2019
Recent Pentagon actions have produced considerable uncertainty in the future of homeland ballistic missile defense. In August 2019, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Dr. Michael Griffin cancelled the Redesigned Kill Vehicle (RKV) program, a long-running effort to replace the kill vehicles on older Ground-Based Interceptors (GBI) designed to defend the nation from a long-range ballistic...
June 8, 2019
Like its three predecessors, the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review reaffirmed the need for the nuclear triad of bombers, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Now comes the hard part. With the authorization and appropriation cycle for fiscal 2020 now underway, the United States is moving closer to the coming bow wave of modernization efforts...
March 26, 2019
On March 25, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful GMD intercept test against an ICBM class target. The test is notably “the first salvo engagement of a threat-representative ICBM target by two Ground Based Interceptors (GBI),” as reported by MDA. The ICBM target was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and...
November 14, 2017
On November 2, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) finished installing the 44th Ground-based Interceptor (GBI) at the Missile Defense Complex at Fort Greely, Alaska, completing the deployment of 14 additional GBIs ordered by President Obama in 2013. The final emplacement occurred just ahead of the year-end deadline. The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system is designed to...
November 7, 2017
On November 6, the White House submitted an FY18 emergency budget request for the Department of Defense for $5.9 billion in additional funding “to support urgent missile defeat and defense enhancements to counter the threat from North Korea.” Most of this request, $4 billion, is designated for missile defeat and defense activities. $2.1 billion would...
October 4, 2017
On October 3, Secretary of Defense James Mattis disclosed the approval of Congressional defense committees to reprogram $416 million from other accounts, including unspent Army maintenance and operations funding, into several missile defense programs. The reallocation would shift $47 million into the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program for 10 to 20 new missile silos for a...
July 6, 2017
North Korea conducted a flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that it has designated the Hwasong-14. During the July 3 test, the Hwasong-14 traveled for around 40 minutes before landing in the Sea of Japan, inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone...