Archives
Recent
Missile Defense
North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program has developed faster than Washington anticipated. To make matters worse, Pyongyang has threatened to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has labeled North Korea’s recent rhetoric as a real and clear danger
. . . Read more
Date:
4/30/2013
Thirty years after Ronald Reagan first articulated a vision of space-based defense against ballistic-missile attack, Washington still can't seem to get serious about the mission. In the same month that the Stalinist government of North Korea threatened a nuclear strike against the American homeland,
. . . Read more
Date:
4/25/2013
If ever there was an individual who seemed prepared to hold a senior government position it is Secretary of State John Kerry. The combination of war hero and long-serving chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would seem to be a good background for someone thrown into the current crisis
. . . Read more
Date:
4/16/2013
For more than half a century there has been the modern military version of a gunfighters’ standoff on the Korean Peninsula. On the northern side of the border is an army of nearly one million with heavy mechanized formations and tens of thousands of artillery pieces and rocket launchers pointed
. . . Read more
Date:
4/15/2013
In the late 1990s, defense hawks and doves were involved in an intense debate over missile defense. The Clinton Administration had stomped on the brakes, reducing the Reagan-Bush program to a research effort. Official intelligence estimates saw the threat to the U.S. homeland from nations such
. . . Read more
Date:
4/12/2013
The Defense Intelligence Agency has probably jumped the gun in finding that North Korea can arm its ballistic missiles with nuclear weapons, but that day is coming. Eventually the U.S. may have to launch a preemptive strike against the North's nuclear complex, given how erratic its leaders are.
. . . Read more
Date:
4/12/2013
Recent North Korean threats to launch nuclear attacks against the United States will undoubtedly renew interest in U.S. missile-defense efforts. Washington has spent about $170 billion on such defenses since Ronald Reagan enunciated the need for a "strategic defense initiative" 30 years ago. Today,
. . . Read more
Date:
4/5/2013
This hasn't been a good week for the junior Senator from New Hampshire, Republican Kelly Ayotte. She went to the floor four times in two days urging the chamber to consider an amendment that would have stripped funding for an Army air defense system from the pending appropriations bill, and in
. . . Read more
Date:
3/21/2013
This week’s test of a nuclear weapon by North Korea, its third, is only one piece of bad news. 38 North, a well-respected web site that follows events on the Korean peninsula, is reporting that the North is building a very large missile facility and associated structures that will allow it to launch
. . . Read more
Date:
2/15/2013
The Missile Defense Agency has signed a contract with Raytheon from January 2013 through May 2015 increasing funding for modification of the AN/TPY-2 radar, a critical part of the ballistic missile defense system, which is deployed on land and at sea. The contract is one facet of a broader effort
. . . Read more
Date:
12/21/2012
The last month has been an important one for the future of missile defenses. Over this period the world has been witness to the profound implications of the proliferation of ballistic missile and rocket technologies. The Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas conducted a massive bombardment of Israel
. . . Read more
Date:
12/13/2012
Last month’s eight day extended firefight between the terrorist group Hamas and Israel was much more than just the most recent round of violence in a decades-long war between some Arabs and the Jewish state. It also marked a military revolution, one with profound implications for the future of conflict
. . . Read more
Date:
12/7/2012
Even as the United States and Israel were engaged in their largest ever missile defense exercise, life stepped in to underscore the volatility of the region and the need for continuing close cooperation between these two democracies. 1,000 U.S. Army soldiers are on the ground in Israel operating
. . . Read more
Date:
10/25/2012
The U.S. Army is searching for ways of contributing more to joint operations in an increasingly complex security environment. Air dominance, precision strike and global reach belong, more or less, to the Air Force. Command of the Sea and everything that stems from it is the Navy's domain. Forcible
. . . Read more
Date:
8/28/2012
Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has been struggling to find its role in a complex and changing security environment. Complicating this effort is the fact that most of European NATO’s military forces were oriented towards territorial defense of a Soviet conventional assault on Western Europe.
. . . Read more
Date:
8/22/2012
Next year will be the thirtieth anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s announcement of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the program intended to make ballistic missiles impotent and obsolete. Over the ensuing three decades, much has changed. The Soviet Union is no more. The deployed strategic nuclear
. . . Read more
Date:
8/15/2012
Last week, United Technologies announced the pending sale of its Rocketdyne subsidiary to GenCorp. Rocketdyne’s principal claim to fame was as a maker of large, liquid-fueled rocket motors such as those that powered Atlas, Delta and Saturn rockets as well as the Space Shuttle. In its new home,
. . . Read more
Date:
7/20/2012
As oil sanctions continue to tighten the economic noose on Iran, all sides are building up their military capabilities. Last week Iran announced that it had conducted another large scale ballistic missile exercise involving Shahab 1, 2 and 3 missiles with ranges of, respectively, 300, 500 and 1,000
. . . Read more
Date:
7/12/2012
Is anyone surprised that the Obama Administration will seek even deeper reductions in U.S. strategic nuclear forces? According to reports circulating in Washington, the administration’s most recent Nuclear Posture Review will propose a strategic nuclear force of 1,000 warheads. This is a one-third
. . . Read more
Date:
6/19/2012
The future of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) leg of the nuclear Triad is again subject to debate. On the one hand, a recent study by Global Zero called for steep reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, including elimination of the entire land-based component. Under this plan, the
. . . Read more
Date:
6/5/2012
April was an unusually active month for foreign missile tests, with India, Pakistan and North Korea all launching their latest, longest-range ballistic missiles. The Indian and Pakistani missiles worked fine, the North Korean one did not. North Korea has now failed three times in a row to demonstrate
. . . Read more
Date:
5/1/2012
This November will mark the 80th anniversary of one of the most disturbing military assessments ever uttered by a western leader. On November 10, 1932 Britain's de facto prime minister Stanley Baldwin said the following in a parliamentary debate about military policy:
I think it is well
. . . Read more
Date:
4/11/2012
In his now infamous "open mike" moment with outgoing Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, President Obama expressed the not too surprising idea that he would have greater negotiating flexibility after the November elections. It is assumed that the President was addressing the subject of missile defenses,
. . . Read more
Date:
4/10/2012
The amusing thing about clichés is that they have a basis in reality. “Stuff” really does happen. So it can be hard to resist using clichéd phrases on occasion because they can be extremely apt.
Having read recent published reports regarding the breakdown in talks between the United States and
. . . Read more
Date:
3/23/2012
The way the Department of Defense does math, two plus two never equals four. Take this simple equation. Add the growing threat from theater ballistic missiles to the Army’s search for relevance in the post Iraq/Afghanistan world and the answer should come up: expand the Army’s role in missile defense.
. . . Read more
Date:
3/12/2012
The new U.S. defense strategy requires the Department of Defense to address in a serious way the anti-access/area denial (AA/AD) threats that have emerged in East Asia and the Persian Gulf regions. In both regions, U.S. forces face prospective adversaries employing large numbers of relatively simple
. . . Read more
Date:
1/23/2012
As the Republican candidates for president slug it out, one of the issues which divides them is whose philosophy represents the true legacy of Ronald Reagan. In addition to desiring to wear the mantle of most Reagan-like, I am sure that each of them wishes that he or she had the Great Communicator’s
. . . Read more
Date:
1/2/2012
The death of Kim Jong Il has triggered the beginning of what may be a protracted filial succession crisis in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Were it not for that country’s possession of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles the death of one petty dictator and the prospective
. . . Read more
Date:
12/20/2011
In 2009 the Obama Administration cancelled the plan to deploy a version of the U.S. national missile defense system in Europe, the so-called Third Site. Instead, the White House proposed a tailored regional missile defense based on its Phased Adaptive Architecture (PAA) concept that sought to leverage
. . . Read more
Date:
11/28/2011
The Obama Administration has a troubling habit of pursuing policies that make sense individually but when taken together are at the very best contradictory and at the worst produce dysfunction. In the Middle East the White House says to some despots that they must go but are silent with respect
. . . Read more
Date:
7/18/2011
How could the Commander in Chief respond today offensively to a long-range threat from a ballistic missile to the U.S. homeland, overseas forces or the territory of a key ally? National missile defense and the planned deployments of theater missile defenses would provide some protection from such
. . . Read more
Date:
6/30/2011
Even as the U.S. begins to reduce its involvement in Afghanistan, the potential source of future conflicts in the region, the Islamic Republic of Iran, is moving aggressively to expand its political and military power. Teheran is reported to be reaching out to its neighbors, Iraq, Afghanistan and
. . . Read more
Date:
6/28/2011
It looks like the U.S. Navy may not need to wait until the end of the decade to have a defensive system capable of coping with longer-range ballistic missiles launched by countries like North Korea. Earlier this week, the USS O'Kane guided-missile destroyer equipped with the Lockheed Martin Aegis
. . . Read more
Date:
4/15/2011
When the guided missile cruiser USS Monterey entered the Mediterranean Sea this month, it began a new era for sea-based missile defense. After decades of only modest involvement in the nation's efforts to defend against ballistic missiles, the Navy is beginning to take a leading role in that mission
. . . Read more
Date:
3/22/2011
The latest round of State Department cables released by Wikileaks have hardly been surprising to anyone who follows foreign affairs. North Korea is a crazy state that everyone in the region wishes would collapse. Iran is the problem that dominates the security concerns of all its neighbors. State Department
. . . Read more
Date:
11/30/2010
The Obama Administration has made much of its efforts to “push the reset” button with respect to the U.S.-Russian relationship. There is a new START agreement providing for modest reductions in the two countries’ strategic arsenals. Washington has gotten Russian agreement to a new round of sanctions
. . . Read more
Date:
6/24/2010
One of the most important lessons not only of the Cold War but of the new conflicts beginning in the late 20th century is the value of collective military capabilities. NATO is the archetype of the way to pursue collective defense. First, there is the integrated military command structure. Second,
. . . Read more
Date:
6/4/2010
Following its success in negotiating a new START Treaty with Russia, the Obama Administration and the Global Zero posse are energized to move forward on their plan for the elimination all nuclear weapons. Those who think that it is a bad idea for the U.S. to pursue further deep reductions in strategic
. . . Read more
Date:
6/1/2010
Last weekend, NATO’s Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told Europe’s NATO members that Europe risked becoming a paper tiger unless it invested more in its own defense. Struggling under the weight of the kind of social spending programs that the Obama Administration is determined to impose
. . . Read more
Date:
3/30/2010