When NATO leaders meet this weekend in Chicago, they are expected to announce an Interim Missile Defense Capability in Europe. This announcement might read well in the summit’s declaration, but a lot more will need to be done before the members of the alliance will be protected from the ever-increasing missile threat. According to NATO’s strategic concept, “The greatest responsibility of the Alliance is to protect and defend our territory and our populations against attack, as set out in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.” This core tenant is what …
What would the life in the United States look like if the continent were hit by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP)? The new TV show Revolution from producer J.J. Abrams, launching on NBC in the fall, is seeking to answer the question. The show portrays life in the United States 15 years after an EMP disables all electronics. Life as we know it changes forever; militias and warlords rule the society, which has to provide for itself without the help of all the electronic devices we know today. Such a scenario …
“Provide for common defense” is a core constitutional obligation of the federal government. Yet entitlement spending is putting unsustainable pressure on the defense budget. In 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security constituted 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) while defense made up 7.4 percent. The Office of Management and Budget estimates that entitlement spending will reach 9.7 percent of GDP in 2012 while defense will shrink to 4.5 percent—even after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are included. (article continued below chart) The defense budget is further threatened from …
In his recent piece in The Wall Street Journal, Senator Jon Kyl (R–AZ) makes the case that the United States should not give Russian President Vladimir Putin guarantees, political or legal, that a U.S. missile defense system will not be effective against Russian missiles. President Obama recently indicated he will exhibit more “flexibility” after he is re-elected in accommodating Russian objections to the U.S. expanding its missile defense capabilities. “The right to self-defense is not one for which we must negotiate; it’s certainly not something for which Russia would negotiate,” …
Recently, Daryl Kimball and Tom Collina, both of the Arms Control Association, criticized the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) for taking hostage the implementations of the New Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (New START) in order to provide necessary funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The article misrepresents facts. New START mandates U.S. unilateral reductions and does not serve U.S. interests. Both authors assert that if the National Defense Authorization Act passes in its entirety—that is, including provisions tying the treaty’s implementation funding with funding for the nuclear weapons complex—Russia …
Last week, Representative Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R–CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), took issue with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s criticism of the fiscal year (FY) 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that recently passed the committee by a vote of 56–5. The combination of the President’s FY 2013 budget request and the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) would reduce the military’s personnel levels and force structure to the point that it could no longer protect U.S. vital interests and keep U.S. security commitments around …
On Thursday, Senator Jon Kyl (R–AZ) delivered the third annual Jesse Helms Lecture at The Heritage Foundation. The Jesse Helms Lecture Series highlights foreign policies that Senator Helms (R–NC) championed throughout his years in office. The lecture is a part of Heritage’s Protect America Month, showcasing why Americans must commit to protecting the country in an increasingly dangerous world. This year, Senator Kyl focused on explaining the federal government’s constitutional obligation to provide for the common defense and why it must remain a bedrock principle of American governance. In his …
Yet again, critics of the U.S. missile defense program have been proven wrong. On Wednesday, the U.S. Navy conducted a successful test of its Aegis ballistic missile defense system using its newest ballistic missile defense interceptor, the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IB. The interceptor, developed by the Raytheon Company, was fired from the USS Lake Erie and engaged and destroyed a short-range ballistic missile target launched off the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii. The USS Lake Erie is equipped with the second-generation Aegis ballistic missile defense 4.0.1 weapons system. …
Yousaf Butt of the Federation of American Scientists attempts yet again to distort facts about the U.S. missile defense program and convince the public that missile defense is a waste of resources. He is wrong. Butt attempts to give the reader an impression that mounting decoys on the top of ballistic missiles to prevent interceptors from discriminating among the real warhead and other objects in space is a cheap way to overcome one’s missile defense system. While decoys in terms of unit costs might be cheap, it is a very …
In April, the Independent Working Group (IWG) on Missile Defense and the Space Relationship held an event on the new triad—space, nuclear weapons, and ballistic missile defense—and its importance for the United States. It explored the fundamental importance and the relationship among the different elements of defense. The United States currently does not have a strategy that would integrate these elements in a synergistic manner. Robert Butterworth, president of Aries Analytics, pointed out that the intelligence community developed the military space systems the United States operates today. That community, however, …
