The Trump administration has today released its long-awaited Missile Defense Review (MDR). Initiated pursuant to both congressional and presidential direction, the report represents an attempt to adapt U.S. missile defense policy, posture, and programs to the strategic environment of great power competition. The United States and its allies face a more complex and challenging aerial...
Recent budget moves will give the U.S. missile defense effort a major boost in funding over the coming year, likely allowing the purchase of additional Ground Based Interceptor missiles on top of the 44 already deployed for use by the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system against ICBMs headed toward the U.S. homeland.
On January 23, the Department of Defense’s Department of Testing and Evaluation released its annual report, which noted improvements in the U.S. Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. According to the report, GMD “demonstrated the capability to defend the U.S. homeland from a small number” of intermediate-range or intercontinental ballistic missiles launched “with simple countermeasures.” Related...
On January 10, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that it will not replace Boeing as the prime integrator for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. An Independent Readiness Review Team (IRRT) composed of subject matter experts found that the Missile Defense Agency was not ready to assume the GMD weapon system prime role at...
Missile defense funds are likely to grow—a lot. In addition to a September reprogramming of an additional $249 million for the Missile Defense Agency for FY 2017, appropriations for FY 2018 could exceed $11 billion, over $3 billion more than the president's original request. This would make for the highest level of missile defense funding in a decade...
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...
President Trump’s recent claim that U.S. ballistic-missile defenses are effective “97 percent of the time” has provoked much discussion about the capabilities of one U.S. defense system in particular: Ground-Based Midcourse Defense.
In the 1990s, the U.S. intelligence community assessed that North Korea might acquire an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015. That threat is now here.
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...
After a successful Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system intercept on May 30, the Pentagon has reportedly upgraded its assessment of the United States’ ability to defend the United States against ICBMs, according to a June 6 memo. Prior DOD assessments had characterized GMD as providing a “limited” defense capability, but the Pentagon now assesses that it...
