Missile Defense –
The return of great power competition coincides with the emergence of an age of missiles. The United States competes with a rising China and increasingly unstable and provocative Russia to shape security architectures and global norms and practices. In addition to Russia and China, the missile threat emanating from the rogue nations of North Korea and Iran toward the United States and its interests is evolving, and so must the United States’ ability to counter these rising threats. The U.S. missile defense enterprise is challenged to effectively counter adversaries’ growing offensive capabilities, including cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV). A weak defense industrial base (DIB), the need to reallocate responsibilities amongst the entities involved with missile defense research, development, procurement, and sustainment, as well as the need to update the U.S. missile defense strategy and increase the speed and effectiveness of research and development hamper the U.S.’s ability to provide adequate missile defense.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s mission to “develop and deploy a layered Missile Defense System (MDS) to defend the United States, its deployed forces, allies, and friends from missile attacks in all phases of flight” summarizes the United States’ broad objectives for missile defense. Recognizing the need for an integrated and comprehensive approach to missile defense, the Department of Defense (DoD) integrated both the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and Missile Defense Review (MDR) into the National Defense Strategy (NDS) for the first time in 2022. The NDS unclassified fact sheet highlights the importance of this alignment with the President’s Interim National Security Strategy Guidance (INSS) and recognizes that the DoD’s first priority is to defend the homeland while explicitly acknowledging China as the foremost threat to the United States. The NDS’s second priority is to deter strategic attacks against the United States and its allies and partners. Finally, its third priority is to deter aggression from China in the Indo-Pacific, followed by Russia in Europe. A robust missile defense system is integral to addressing all of these strategic priorities.
Both China and Russia have made standoff weapons a key element of their respective military doctrines and developed advanced missile technologies explicitly intended for use against the United States. Similarly, the rogue nations of North Korea and Iran are designing increasingly sophisticated missiles directed toward the United States. The U.S. missile defense enterprise struggles to keep pace with these rapid advancements, undermining the United States’ ability to counter rogue nations and peer competitors alike. The United States must strengthen its homeland and regional missile defenses. To do so, the United States must reorient its missile defense strategy, reform the missile defense agency, and strengthen the missile defense industrial base.
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