On November 17, 2020, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) conducted a potentially very consequential test of the Navy’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) capability — hopefully indicating a major step toward realizing this vision of the George H.W. Bush administration and 1995 Heritage Foundation’s Team B. Read Full Story
North Korea continues to produce nuclear material and, between May 2019 and late March 2020, conducted multiple short-range ballistic missile tests in violation of United Nations Security Council prohibitions. And Kim Jong Un rolled out a new major intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM) during an October 10, 2020 nighttime parade in Pyongyang. Read Full Story
Retired Army General Edward C. Meyer, former Army Chief of Staff (1979-83), died last week in Arlington, Virginia at the age of 91. I understand his prep-school colleagues called him “Shy,” a nickname that stuck; but he was anything but shy. Read Full Story
“Gorbachev said he could not do it. If they could agree to ban research in space, he would sign in two minutes. They should add to the text ‘The testing in space of all space components of missile defense is prohibited, except research and testing conducting in laboratories’ . . .” Authoritative Memcon from Reykjavik Summit, October 12, 1986 Read Full Story
“As the era of great power competition continues to evolve, we must understand the full breadth and depth of the competition, how they think, and how they are likely to act or react.” ~Brendan Mulvaney, Director of the Air University’s China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI), in the introduction to “China’s Space Narrative” Read Full Story
“The global missile defense system, under construction by the United States, is a prime example of Washington trying to take advantage at the cost of other countries’ security. Meanwhile we are adamant that achieving agreements on nuclear missile issues without factoring in U.S. missile defense is impossible.” ~ Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev Read Full Story
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We [don’t] pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” ~ Ronald Reagan Read Full Story
DoD is upgrading the Aegis BMD system’s SM-3 Block IIA interceptor, and its command, control system to intercept ICBMs. It’s about time since even the Block IB had this potential!!! So, we are reportedly taking the first step of the Heritage Foundation’s 1995 Team B Recommendations for a Global Defense. When, oh when, will we take the second and go to space? Read Full Story
“Blackjack, in summary, is turning the corner from our phase one exploration of what type of commercial technology we can use to leverage the entire military utility of P-LEO, hopefully disruptive approaches to constellations and network architectures, [and] space mesh networks of the future.” ~ DARPA Blackjack Project Manager Paul “Rusty” Thomas Read Full Story
“Regrettably, both Congress and the Administration appear to present ambiguities in their approach to missile defense policy. The U.S. Congress can do better, as the FY 2017 NDAA demonstrated. And the Administration will have to get on the same page consistently if it wants to effectively communicate the value of ballistic missile defense to the American people and members of Congress who represent them.” Michaela Dodge in her March 2020, National Institute for Public Policy Report, The Backward Step on Missile Defense in the FY 2020 NDAA Read Full Story
We will be adding key policy briefs as we progress.