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.
In a landmark test on December 3, a U.S. F-16 fighter jet used an air-to-air missile to intercept and destroy a sounding rocket in its boost phase for the first time. The Net-Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCDE) can equip fighter aircrafts with missile interceptors that could eliminate ballistic missiles as they lift into space. While the aircraft could only intercept missiles within a 100 miles of the launch site, Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick Lehner said the NCDE could still be effective against short and medium range missiles. 