By Samuel M. Hickey President Joe Biden has inherited a missile defense architecture that is on the verge of bridging the gap between the long-accepted demarcation of theater systems and those defending the U.S. homeland. The Pentagon has ordered the transfer of 11 SM-3 Block II A interceptors to the Navy for possible deployment in the Pacific […]
Missile Defense on Guam and the China Threat
By Genevieve Hackman Outgoing head of the Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson has made no secret what he believes to be the number one regional military threat: China. In March, he painted a grim picture for the Senate Armed Services Committee: “I worry that they [China] are accelerating their ambitions to supplant the United States,” […]
Op-ed: Missile Defense is Not a Substitute for Arms Control
Executive Director John Tierney and Research Analyst Samuel Hickey co-authored an op-ed in War On the Rocks arguing that bringing up missile defense in strategic stability talks with Russia is a point of leverage for the United States, not the other way around. “President Ronald Reagan had a dream of an impregnable shield that could swat away […]
Ground-Based Midcourse Defense: Defense Theology With Unproven Technology
Expensive, unproven and duplicative. Here’s why we don’t need GMD.
Fact sheet: U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense
UPDATED: May 21, 2025 Ballistic missile defense systems seek to defend a given area from attack by locating and tracking an incoming ballistic missile and then launching an interceptor to destroy the missile before it can reach its target. All U.S. interceptors are made up of a booster rocket and a kill vehicle. While most […]
