The greatest strategic threat to the United States is an attack by one or more ballistic missiles armed with nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction. Today, the United States remains completely vulnerable to this form of attack.
Missilethreat.com is dedicated to explaining this threat, and the urgent need for robust and layered missile defenses. Systems based on land, sea, air, and in space which are capable of intercepting a missile during any phase of its flight are necessary to provide for the common defense.
Writing for the November 15 edition of The Washington Times, James Hackett discusses the progress made on the Sea-Based X-band radar (SBX). The SBX is designed "to detect and track ballistic missiles more effectively and provide targeting information to both ground- and sea-based interceptors. The power and precision of its beam improves the ability of the interceptor to distinguish warheads from decoys and other penetration aids." Indeed, the radar is so powerful it can "track an object the size of a baseball over the East Coast." The SBX's usual position is Adak in Alaska's Aleutian Islands, however the radar is mobile, and has moved by its own power around the Pacific for various missile tests.