Trump administration to hike missile defense
Pentagon plans to adjust for threats from Russia, China
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is working on an expanded U.S. missile defense policy that would address certain threats from Russia and China, departing from a previous strategy that focused nearly exclusively on rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran.
The new policy will still call for bolstered technology against rogue states, with a particular focus on weapons to intercept North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s missiles. But people familiar with the review say it will also mention the need to consider missile threats from Russia and China, a change from previous doctrine.
The document remains in a draft form and could change before its tentative release in late March.
Deliberations on the policy at the Pentagon come as Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens the United States with new weaponry, including a nuclearpowered cruise missile that he touted publicly for the first time during a presidential address on Thursday.
Russia’s thousands of missiles easily could overwhelm existing U.S. missile defenses in the event of a full-scale war. Washington relies on the threat of its own vast nuclear arsenal to deter an attack from a global power.
As a result, the Pentagon isn’t pursuing a shield against all missile threats from Russia and China. American defense planners abandoned such lofty goals after the Soviet Union’s collapse. Rather, according to one U.S. official, the policy will more discretely look at ways the United States can better deal with burgeoning missile threats from Russia and China in regional theaters such as Europe and Asia, where the two countries’ systems have alarmed the American military.
The Pentagon so far sees “anything in the regional context as fair game,” said the official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because the policy hasn’t been finalized.
U.S. officials recognize that the advanced missile technologies Russia and China are developing will probably end up in the arsenals of other countries in the future, meaning the policy must decide how to address them anyway.
The Pentagon’s chief spokeswoman, Dana W. White, emphasized in a briefing Thursday that U.S. missile defenses aren’t trained on Russia and remain focused on rogue nations. The American military already knew about the weapons Putin referenced and stands ready to defend the United States, she said.
White didn’t say whether Russian and Chinese threats would be mentioned in the new policy.
The move to adjust the doctrine comes as the Trump administration reworks foreign and defense policies to fit a new national security strategy that has proclaimed the return of “great power competition” with Russia and China.
Critics warn that these systems encourage competitors to develop more sophisticated arms, are expensive and have questionable effectiveness.
“Putin’s announcement is a predictable reaction to the ongoing missile defense efforts of the United States,” Lisbeth Gronlund, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “Now, it appears that the Trump administration is going to ramp up these defenses, increasing Russia’s concerns.”
But administration officials and top lawmakers have said the United States must respond to the threats at hand, regardless of whether certain initiatives would rankle Moscow or Beijing.
The concept of U.S. missile defense emerged in the early days of the Cold War with the goal of protecting the American homeland from the Soviet Union’s growing arsenal.
The idea rose to new heights in the 1980s with President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, which envisioned a shield guarding the United States from Soviet nuclear missiles like “a roof protects a family from rain.” Among the main ideas: downing enemy missiles from space.
The initiative, which drew controversy for its high costs and futuristic ambitions, ended after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
In 2002, the United States abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia, citing the need for a missile defense system that could prevent the United States from being blackmailed by a nuclear-armed rogue nation.
The U.S. military currently has 44 interceptors in Alaska and California that can shoot missiles out of silos, with plans to increase the number to 64 by about 2023 and possibly add a third site in the eastern part of the United States. The military and its allies also operate sea and land missile defense systems in Europe and Asia.
The system in Alaska and California has drawn criticism for its high cost and questionable record; only 10 of the system’s 18 intercept tests since 1999 have hit their targets. Proponents point out that the two most recent tests succeeded, including one last year, and say the system has improved.
The Trump administration delayed publication of an initial draft of the new policy, according to U.S. officials, and began reworking it out of concern that it focused too squarely on North Korea and Iran.
Air Force Gen. John Hyten, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, warned that Russia is continuing to violate the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty with banned ground-launched cruise missiles. Russia also is modernizing heavy bombers to launch other advanced cruise missiles, including those it has put on display in Syria, he said.
Hyten called China’s ballistic missile development program the world’s “most active and diverse.”
U.S. generals are advocating extensive investments in sensor technology. The first step toward better defenses, they say, would be to know in advance when the faster, more nimble missiles are coming. The Pentagon will also elaborate on possible ways to intercept North Korean missiles in their “boost phase,” or during their ascent.
A number of lawmakers have been pressing the Pentagon to deploy ground-based interceptors at a new East Coast missile site — which theoretically would allow the military to take a second shot at a missile coming from North Korea and a first shot at a missile from Iran.