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In March 9 testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee,Lieutenant General Henry A. Obering, the Director of the MissileDefense Agency, stated that his agency made history in 2004 byestablishing a "limited defensive capability" for protecting theUnited States against ballistic missile attack. Congress, as itundertakes the task of drafting the fiscal year (FY) 2007 DefenseAuthorization bill, must recognize that this defense is very thinand needs to be strengthened. It can do so by making severalsignificant changes in the missile defense budget, such as addingfunds to accelerate the concurrent testing and operation programfor the long-range missile defense interceptors in Alaska andCalifornia and to improve and expand the sea-based interceptors onthe Navy's AEGIS ships. Looking to the future, Congress shoulddirect the Agency to start serious work on placing missile defenseinterceptors in space.
The failure of the Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (“super committee”) to come to agreement on reducing the federal deficit raises the real prospect of a total of $1 trillion in cuts to the defense budget over the next decade. These cuts have been put forth with little consideration for their long-term impact: a dangerous degradation of America’s capacity to deter, defend, and defeat her enemies. They will have a particularly negative impact on America’s ability to stabilize and influence Asia, a critical component of U.S. national security. While the past century has seen America establish a strong role in Asia, these gains would be jeopardized by the proposed enormous pending cuts in defense capability.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) is in the midst of developing programs for both submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and ballistic missile submarines (SSBs), potentially expanding the credibility, flexibility, and survivability of its current land-based nuclear force. Expansion of the DPRK’s nuclear force from a land-based monad to a land-based and sea-based dyad could increase the danger to the U.S.
Despite iran’s runaway nuclear program, North Korea’s atomic assistance to Syria, and robust ballistic missile production and testing by Russia and China, a missile defense system for protecting the homeland and U.S. interests overseas remains a controversial idea in some corners. It should not be. The security challenge arising from the proliferation of ballistic missiles and the dangerous payloads they might carry, including weapons of mass destruction (wmd) like nuclear arms, is a threat that in fact may be growing.