“President-elect Trump should direct the Pentagon to revive SDI plans for destroying ballistic missiles in their boost phase, shortly after launch — when a ballistic missile is most vulnerable and before it releases its nuclear warheads and decoys. We should not continue depending solely on the more expensive midcourse- and terminal-phase intercept capability.” … “How Trump Can Revive Reagan’s Defense Vision,” National Review, November 29, 2016 Read Full Story
“We propose to rebuild the key tools of missile defense, starting with the Navy cruisers that are the foundation of our missile defense capabilities in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. As we expand our Navy toward the goal of 350 ships, we will also procure additional modern destroyers that are designed to handle the missile defense mission in the coming years.”
Candidate Donald Trump, September 2016 Speech in Philadelphia
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“Wouldn’t it be better to save lives than to avenge them? Are we not capable of demonstrating our peaceful intentions by applying all our abilities and our ingenuity to achieving a truly lasting stability? I think we are. Indeed, we must. After careful consultation with my advisers, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I believe there is a way.” Ronald Reagan, March 23, 1983 Read Full Story
“Those who do not learn from History are doomed to repeat it.” Variously attributed to George Santayana, Edmund Burke, Winston Churchill, . . . Whoever, inevitably true! Read Full Story
“There is no upper bound to the cost of a program the sponsor doesn’t want to do and doesn’t know how to do.” ~ Dr. William R Graham, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Ronald Reagan Read Full Story
“Adversaries are developing kinetic, directed-energy, and cyber tools to deny, degrade, and destroy our space capabilities.~ General John Hyten, Commander of Air Force Space Command, from his prepared March 15, 2016 testimony to the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee Read Full Story
“. . . Many of our potential adversaries are pursuing advanced weapons development not seen in decades. Individually, they pose serious concerns to our national security and the international community. Collectively, they represent a vast spectrum of complex and volatile threats that I believe will only continue to grow and threaten the homeland if we hesitate to act decisively.” Admiral William E. Gortney ~ March 10, 2016 Read Full Story
“We need to innovate. We need to do it — do it together for the future because that’s the way to make sure that we have the finest fighting force in the world tomorrow, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now . . .” ~ Defense Secretary Ashton Carter speaking to technology leaders in Seattle, March 3, 2016 Read Full Story
“China is pursuing a broad and robust array of counterspace capabilities, which includes direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles, co-orbital anti-satellite systems, computer network operations, ground-based satellite jammers and directed energy weapons.” ~ Bill Gertz, quoting from a new report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, to be published next month Read Full Story
“There was a time when space-based missile defense was criticized as ‘weaponizing space.’ So, while we sat back and tried to show leadership on this issue, Russia and China weaponized it for us . . . [I]t’s time to get past ideology and develop real defenses, and space-based missile defenses shouldn’t be off-the-table. For less than our current systems, we could deploy a missile defense system in space that’s more capable than what we have in today’s GMD system.” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), Chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee at the July 8th AFA, NDIA and ROA seminar Read Full Story
We will be adding key policy briefs as we progress.