Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors. Photographer: Ralph Scott/U.S. Army
Bloomberg: Pentagon Says Its $180 Billion Missile Defense System Has Improved
* Report cites capability against ‘small number’ of missiles
* But ‘Ferraris of decoys’ aren’t needed to fool system: analyst
The Pentagon continues to make progress in showing that its $180 billion network of ground- and sea-based missile interceptors, sensors and communications links could defend the U.S. from a limited North Korean or Iranian attack, according to the military’s testing office.
The system “has demonstrated capability” to protect the American mainland or troops abroad from “a small number” of intermediate-range and intercontinental ballistic missile threats if the Pentagon “employs its full architecture of sensors and command and control,” Robert Behler, the Defense Department’s director of operational testing said in a new assessment obtained by Bloomberg News.
Behler’s annual report on major weapons systems, to be published this month, reaffirms increasing confidence in missile defenses improvements that have been cited by him and his predecessor starting in mid-2017. Before then, test office assessments labeled the system’s demonstrated capability to defend the U.S. as “limited” after it it failed in five of 10 attempts dating from 2004 to destroy a dummy target. The two most recent interception attempts were successful.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: This is not a cheap system ....
.... The missile defense system is the Pentagon’s second-costliest weapons program behind the F-35 fighter. It’s managed by Boeing Co., linked by a network from Northrop Grumman Corp. and uses interceptor missiles built by Raytheon Co. It now includes 44 ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California as well as Army radar, Thaad missile batteries and Aegis-class anti-missile vessels.
