ISSUE BRIEF - Missile Defense: The End of the Interim Solution

The Center honors the goal of eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles.” legacy of service of General Brent Scowcroft and embodies his ethos President Ronald Reagan of nonpartisan commitment to the Washington, DC, March 23, 1983 cause of security, support for US leadership in cooperation with allies and partners, and dedication to the mentorship of the next generation of leaders. [...] An assessment and strategy to challenges facing the United States reallocate funding to accelerate the development of directed energy systems and its allies, and creates forward- is urgently needed for the United States and its allies and partners to deploy looking assessments of the trends, effective missile defenses by the end of this decade. [...] cost of adversaries’ offensive missile attacks, (2) the value The thoughts represented in this paper are my own and do of the lives and assets being protected, (3) the economic not represent the views of L3Harris Technologies, Inc.) value of freedom of access to key regions, and (4) the geo- political value of countering regional coercion by poten- The interim solution, which has been pursued for. [...] ATLANTIC COUNCIL 7 ISSUE BRIEF Missile Defense: The End of the Interim Solution and evaluations.14 However, due to the slow pace of in- A comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of mis- vestment in DE technologies, these systems do not reflect sile interceptor systems compared to a timeline of emerg- the latest technologies developed in US research institu- ing threat projections is warrante. [...] Finally, a budget assessment of the funding of the production, maintenance, The Department of Defense continues to avoid prioritizing and retirement of missile interceptor systems balanced the funding necessary to counter emerging threats by end with the need to accelerate the development, testing, and of this decade.