researchers made significant progress toward developing naval-based theater missile defenses during the Clinton administration, the basic NMD architecture had no naval component because that administration sought actual deployments by 2005–2006. Once in office, the Bush administration was determined to accelerate progress on missile defenses, expand research and development efforts, accept a gr...

National Miss ile Defens e If U.S. national missile defense (NMD) were only about countering ballistic missiles deployed by rogue states,1 then whether to deploy limited NMD would be a “normal” national security issue. The military-technical question would concern feasibility: Would the missile defense work against the small missile forces that a few states may eventually deploy? The military-p...

■ The U.S. Air Force is developing the airborne laser (ABL), whose mission is to engage and destroy theater ballistic missiles such as the SCUD while these missiles are in their boost phase. This mission capability requires high-energy laser propagation over long horizontal paths (200 to 300 km) through the upper atmosphere. To be effective in the presence of atmospheric turbulence, the ABL mus...

This paper develops a model of short-range ballistic missile defense and uses it to study the performance of Israel’s Iron Dome system. The deterministic base model allows for inaccurate missiles, unsuccessful interceptions, and civil defense. Model enhancements consider the trade-offs in attacking the interception system, the difficulties faced by militants in assembling large salvos, and the ...

of THEATER MISSILE DEFENSE IN WORLD WAR II SOME OPERATIONAL ART CONSIDERATIONS The World War II V-l and V-2 attacks by Germany were the first effective use of theater missiles, and the first instance of a requirement for theater missile defense (TMD). The Allied response to German cruise (V-l) and ballistic (V-2) missile attacks incorporated all the elements of modern TMD concepts—Active Defens...

The Nuclear Notebook is researched and written by Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Information Project with Federation American Scientists, Matt Korda, a research associate project. column has been published in Bulletin Atomic Scientists since 1987. This issue’s examines Russia’s nuclear arsenal, which includes stockpile nerarly 4,500 warheads. Of these, some 1,600 strategic warheads are dep...

China held the first of what could be a series of tests to check on the speed of its new experimental hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) which would approach its target at a velocity of up to 10 times the speed of sound. Basically dubbed as WU-14 by Pentagon, this development interpreted to be designed for mounting on intercontinental ballistic missiles, as when the hypersonic vehicle is detached f...