U.S. Missile Defense Plans Don’t Add Up
Jeffrey Chatterton /
The Department of Defense has submitted a report to Congress that warns Iran may be able to reach the United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by 2015.
If Iran also successfully develops a nuclear weapon within that time, the consequences would be devastating for the U.S. and its allies in range of an Iranian missile. However, the Obama Administration’s missile defense plans to counter this looming threat will not sufficiently protect the U.S. from an Iranian ICBM.
According to a White House Fact Sheet released last September, the “phased adaptive approach” to missile defense will expand defenses against short- and medium-range missile by 2015; short-, medium, and intermediate-range threats by 2018; and “the potential future ICBM threat” in the 2020 time frame. (more…)