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 joint exercise with the U.S. Navy yesterday, Japan successfully intercepted a missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai. The SM-3 interceptor was launched from the Japanese missile destroyer "Myoko," and engaged its target over 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean.
The Aegis system, with its Block I SM-3 interceptors (and the Block IIA, currently in join development by the U.S. and Japan), will form the backbone of the Obama administration's new missile defense strategy for Europe. The Bush administration's plans for an X-Band Radar unit in the Czech Republic and ground-based interceptors based in Poland has been scuttled in the face of, among other considerations, Russian opposition. The Block IIA variant of the SM-3 will have larger rocket motors and a larger kill vehicle than the Block I and thus a longer range and more intricate hit-to-kill capabilities; the Block IIA is scheduled for deployment to the European theater in 2018.