A top U.S. commander wants to test technology that can better defend domestic targets
Russia recently attacked Kyiv with a cruise missile in a menacing demonstration of Moscow’s ability to carry out a long-range strike against a metropolitan target. The successful assault exposed vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s air defenses—and highlighted similar gaps in those of the U.S. Now the Pentagon wants to test technology that it hopes can defend American cities against the very same type of weapon.
Dealing with the threat of cruise missiles presents two especially difficult challenges, explains Patty-Jane Geller, a missile defense expert at the Heritage Foundation. “First, they’re really difficult to detect and track,” Geller says. “Cruise missiles fly at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles, which most of our sensors—both space- and land-based—are designed to detect. They also don’t fly superfast.” If a cruise missile is traveling over U.S.
Other related military technology is also creating headaches for NORAD. Earlier this month U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier warned Congress that “in the coming months” Russia will field a pair of new, ultraquiet attack submarines that can carry cruise missiles. Berrier said these craft, the Kazan and Novosibirsk, are capable of threatening North America from the Pacific.
This is why the Department of Defense would prefer to preserve its inventory for use in possible overseas operations rather than tying that inventory down protecting, say, Los Angeles, New York City or other vulnerable population centers. In fact, the only domestic location currently protected by round-the-clock cruise missile defense is Washington, D.C.
The rest of VanHerck’s $50-million request for the demonstration would support three sessions of one-week exercises at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. These experiments would link the tower-mounted radar—the Pentagon says it will use an existing x-band sensor as a surrogate during the demonstration—with existing shooters and battle management systems. In preparation for the proposed 2023 demonstration, the MDA must first conduct a series of simulated cruise missile intercepts.
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