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Bloomberg
The ground-based system of interceptors that the US would use to defend the mainland and Hawaii against a threatened North Korean attack is improving after past setbacks, the Pentagon’s testing office said in a new report. The $36 billion system “demonstrated the capability to defend the US homeland from a small number†of intermediate range or intercontinental ballistic missiles launched “with simple countermeasures,†Robert Behler, the Defense Department’s new director of operational testing, said in his office’s annual report that was submitted to top Pentagon officials.
While Behler carefully hedged his assessment, it’s more optimistic than past reports by his predecessor about the capabilities of the system, which now has 44 defensive missiles deployed in California and Hawaii, with 20 more planned. Since 2012, the testing office had found that the network of interceptors, sensors and communications links had only a “limited capability†to defend against a small number of ICBMs from an adversary such as North Korea or Iran.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has vowed to perfect a nuclear warhead and a missile that could hit the US mainland. The US has led the push
to tighten sanctions against North Korea, and President Donald Trump has vowed “fire and fury†if the US is threatened.
Iran says it has no ambitions to obtain nuclear weapons, and its nuclear program is constrained by its 2015 agreement with the US and other world powers. But the Trump administration is pressing European allies to join in new sanctions against Iran’s continued testing of ballistic missiles.