Study Says No US Missile Defense System Has Proven Itself Capable Against ‘Realistic’ ICBM Threats

A Ground-based Interceptor missile, an element of the nation’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, launched from North Vandenberg Sept. 12, 2021. (U.S. Space Force photo by Airman Kadielle Shaw)  

Breaking Defense: No US missile defense system proven capable against ‘realistic’ ICBM threats: Study 

Missile Defense Agency pushes back, pointing Breaking Defense to positive report from Pentagon tester, laudatory comments from senior military officials and recent test wins. 

WASHINGTON: A new study of US missile defenses has found that — after 70 years and some $350 billion in investment — no “system thus far developed has been shown to be effective against realistic ICBM threats” to the homeland. It’s a conclusion with which the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency begs to differ. 

The study by the American Physical Society (APS) examined a hypothetical North Korean strike and current missile defense systems, such as ground-based interceptors, as well as more futuristic options in development, like directed energy weapons and space-based interceptors. It found today’s capabilities inadequate and future systems unlikely to do the job of defending the country in the next 15 years at least — even from a small number of North Korean missiles.  

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WNU Editor: A sobering read. Makes you wonder if it is all worth.

The Pentagon Newest Missile Defense Program To Cost $17.7B

(U.S. Missile Defense Agency) 

 Defense News: Next-gen intercontinental ballistic missile interceptor estimated cost? Nearly $18B 

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s Next-Generation Interceptor — a weapon the department is competitively developing to replace the current ground-based interceptors within the United States — will cost nearly $18 billion across the life of the program.

An independent cost estimate from the Defense Department’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office — first reported by Bloomberg and since obtained by Defense News — has determined the total cost to develop the NGI will come to roughly $13 billion while procurement as well as operation and sustainment will come to a little over $2 billion each.  

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Update #1: DoD Estimates It’s New Missile Defense Program To Cost $17.7B (Breaking Defense) Update #2: U.S. Missile Defense Warhead Program to Cost Almost $18 Billion (Bloomberg)  

WNU Editor: The expectation is that this anti-missile program will be deployed by 2027-2028 with 21 interceptors in addition to 10 development test units.

Pentagon Is Developing A Plan To Stop Hypersonic Weapons Attacks

Artist's impression of hypersonic weapons. (Raytheon)

FOX News/Warrior Maven: The Pentagon has plans to destroy hypersonic weapons attacks

The Pentagon is looking to Space War as an emerging method to counter seemingly unstoppable hypersonic weapons attacks, with early prototyping of satellite sensors and other tracking technology to more quickly find and “take out” weapons traveling more than five times the speed of sound.

“We have to work on sensor architecture, because they do maneuver and they are global, you have to be able to track them worldwide and globally. It does drive you towards a space architecture, which is where we’re going,” Navy Vice Admiral Jon Hill, director of the Missile Defense Agency, said in a Pentagon report.

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WNU Editor: The Russians are also planning .... Putin: Russia is building defenses against hypersonic missiles (UPI).

The Case For US Missile Defense

Michaela Dodge, Daily Signal: Sobering Film on Nuclear Attack Shows Need for More Nuclear Defense Spending

The Heritage Foundation’s documentary “33 Minutes” may not be the most cheerful holiday season film, but its warning to the American public about the risk of nuclear attack could not be more timely.

In recent months, North Korea’s missiles have grown in range and capability. The most recent missile it tested, the Hwasong-15, can reach anywhere in the continental United States. This is a deeply alarming development.

When the documentary was first released in 2007, and then updated in 2016, the idea of a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile being able to reach the entire United States remained a fearful yet still unrealized possibility.

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WNU Editor: The above Heritage Foundation video is trying to make the case for missile defense against rogue nations like North Korea. The problem is that the skeptics do not believe it will work .... If North Korea Launches An ICBM, Then… (October 20, 2017).

Pentagon Ends Boeing-Led $1 Billion Ballistic Missile Interceptor Program Over Design Issues

A Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) interceptor launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California during a Missile Defense Agency test in 2010. The Defense Department said it would seek bids for a new version of the weapons system called the Redesigned Kill Vehicle

Daily Mail: Pentagon terminates Boeing-led $1 billion ballistic missile interceptor program over design problems

* The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it is terminating the troubled billion-dollar program to develop a ballistic missile interceptor, citing design problems
* The Defense Department said it would seek bids for a new version of the Redesigned Kill Vehicle (RKV) weapons system
* The program was being led by Boeing
* The system was supposed to work by firing off a 'kill vehicle' from an interceptor missile to defend the US against long-range ballistic missile attacks
* In December 2018, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency concluded that 'certain critical components' failed to meet technical requirements
* Five months later, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering Michael Griffin decided to suspend the contract and consider alternatives
* The Pentagon finally concluded that the design problems were either insurmountable or too costly to fix

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it is terminating a troubled billion-dollar program to develop a ballistic missile interceptor, citing design problems.

The Defense Department said it would seek bids for a new version of the weapons system called the Redesigned Kill Vehicle, or RKV. The program was being led by Boeing.

'Ending the program was the responsible thing to do,' said Michael Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.

'Development programs sometimes encounter problems. After exercising due diligence, we decided the path we're going down wouldn't be fruitful, so we're not going down that path anymore,' Griffin added.

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Update #1: Pentagon puts Boeing $1 billion “kill vehicle” contract to death (War Is Boring)
Update #2: Pentagon Kills Multi-Billion-Dollar Boeing Missile Defense Contract Over Design Issues (Sputnik)

WNU Editor: This is a major setback.

U.S. Carries Out First Successful 'Salvo' Interception Of An ICBM Target

Warzone/The Drive: Two Interceptors Launched From California To Swat ICBM In Most Ambitious Missile Defense Test Yet (Updated)

The experiment has been more than a decade in the making and marks a critical juncture for the United States' rickety missile defense shield.

The U.S. military has conducted an important missile defense test from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. While officials at the base have declined to give any details about the experiment so far, earlier reports said it would be the first salvo test of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, against a mock intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM.

Vandenberg confirmed the launch occurred at around 10:30 AM local time, according to local media reports. Individuals reported seeing two distinct trails, further indicating that this was the salvo test. On Mar. 24, 2019, Bloomberg had been first to report that the experiment, officially known as Flight Test Ground-Based Midcourse Defense-11, or FTG-11, was most likely coming today.

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More News On Yesterday's Successful U.S. Missile Defense Test

US missile defense system destroys ICBM threat for the first time in historic 'salvo' test -- Business Insider/Defense News
A new defense against nuclear strikes: Pentagon successfully tests first-ever missile 'salvo' using multiple weapons to take down a simulated warhead from 4,000 miles away -- Daily Mail
Missile defense test launched from California succeeds in shootdown: Pentagon -- AP
Pentagon: 'Milestone' ICBM missile intercept test a success -- The Hill
US Missile Defense Agency successfully tests missile interceptors -- CNN
Pentagon: Missile Defense Test Succeeds in Shootdown -- Military.com/The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
US shoots down dummy ICBM in groundbreaking military exercise -- FOX News
US Ground-Based Interceptor Successfully Destroys ICBM in Test - MDA -- Sputnik

Pentagon’s New Ballistic Missile Interceptor Doesn’t Work

A missile fired from the USS John Paul Jones intercepted a target at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in 2017.

Breaking Defense: Pentagon’s New Ballistic Missile Interceptor Doesn’t Work, Suffers Years-Long Delay

What happens when the Pentagon's new ballistic missile defeat program doesn't work? They keep using the old one, which has a spotty track record.

PENTAGON: The Pentagon’s next-generation interceptor warhead to kill ballistic missiles, the Redesigned Kill Vehicle (KV), is at least two years away from working out its issues, despite years of development. That pushes back the fielding of the last pieces of a $40 billion dollar missile defense system that has struggled since the late 1990s.

The RKV delay won’t effect the overall expansion of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system from 44 to 64 interceptors based in California and Alaska — meant to protect the United States from North Korean missiles — but it does ensure that the existing interceptor, the Exoastmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), s will stay in service even longer, despite a spotty track record.

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WNU Editor: No one said that this program was going to be easy to pull-off. But after billions of dollars spent and only a so-so success rate in intercepting incoming missiles during fixed tests, you have to wonder if this program is ever going to meet its expectations.

Is The U.S. Preparing To Revive Space-Based Missile Defense?

A Hsiung Feng-3 anti-ship missile is fired from the Tuo Jiang stealth corvette, one of the many missiles the US is determined to have the technology to intercept. Photo: Handout

Stephen Bryen, Asia Times: Is the US reviving space-based missile defense?

There is evidence that points in that direction, but foreign cooperation is being ruled out for now.

There is growing evidence that the US Defense Department is reviving space-based missile defense, ostensibly to counter the rise in hypersonic missiles, which can allegedly bypass conventional missile defense systems including Patriot, THAAD, Ground-Based Mid-Course Interceptor and sea and land-based SM-3 Aegis-type interceptors.

That’s because of the speed and maneuverability of hypersonic missiles such as Russia’s Zircon 3M22 sub or ship-launched hypersonic missile and others that may be in the Russian pipeline. China also is actively testing hypersonic platforms.

Last year China tested three hypersonic models – labeled D18-1S, D-18-2S and D-18-3S – and a hypersonic glider that can be launched by a rocket, called Starry Sky 2 (Xing-Kong-2), a “wave-rider” platform that rides its own shock waves.

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WNU Editor:  Developments in hypersonic missile defense has changed the playing field. I would be surprised if the U.S. is not seriously looking at reviving space-based missile defense.

Pentagon Says Its $180 Billion Missile Defense System Can Defend The U.S. From A Limited North Korean Or Iranian Missile Attack

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors. Photographer: Ralph Scott/U.S. Army

Bloomberg: Pentagon Says Its $180 Billion Missile Defense System Has Improved

* Report cites capability against ‘small number’ of missiles
* But ‘Ferraris of decoys’ aren’t needed to fool system: analyst

The Pentagon continues to make progress in showing that its $180 billion network of ground- and sea-based missile interceptors, sensors and communications links could defend the U.S. from a limited North Korean or Iranian attack, according to the military’s testing office.

The system “has demonstrated capability” to protect the American mainland or troops abroad from “a small number” of intermediate-range and intercontinental ballistic missile threats if the Pentagon “employs its full architecture of sensors and command and control,” Robert Behler, the Defense Department’s director of operational testing said in a new assessment obtained by Bloomberg News.

Behler’s annual report on major weapons systems, to be published this month, reaffirms increasing confidence in missile defenses improvements that have been cited by him and his predecessor starting in mid-2017. Before then, test office assessments labeled the system’s demonstrated capability to defend the U.S. as “limited” after it it failed in five of 10 attempts dating from 2004 to destroy a dummy target. The two most recent interception attempts were successful.

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WNU Editor: This is not a cheap system ....

.... The missile defense system is the Pentagon’s second-costliest weapons program behind the F-35 fighter. It’s managed by Boeing Co., linked by a network from Northrop Grumman Corp. and uses interceptor missiles built by Raytheon Co. It now includes 44 ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California as well as Army radar, Thaad missile batteries and Aegis-class anti-missile vessels.

Should An ICBM-Killing Missile Be Developed For The F-35?

An F-35C Lightning II test aircraft conducts the first separation of a Joint Standoff Weapon C from an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. (U.S. Navy via Raytheon)

Defense News: Pentagon considers an ICBM-killing weapon for the F-35, but is it affordable?

WASHINGTON — Over the next six months, the Defense Department will weigh whether to develop a new weapon for the F-35 fighter jet that will enable it to strike down an intercontinental ballistic missile in the early stages of flight.

And it’s the Pentagon’s lead official for developmental technologies who is bullish on the prospect, telling reporters Jan. 17 that a new weapon could be both operationally effective and low cost.

"For certain regional geographies — North Korea comes to mind — we actually think it’s entirely possible and cost-effective to deploy what I will loosely call air-to-air interceptors, although possibly of new design, on advanced aircraft [and] using the aircraft as either sensor or weapons platforms to affect a missile intercept,” said Mike Griffin, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.

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WNU Editor: They are saying that such a missile would not be too costly to develop or deploy. Considering the history of the F-35, I am skeptical that it will be cheap or easy to deploy.

Commentaries And Analysis On The Pentagon's Missile Defense Review

Aaron Mehta , Joe Gould , and Tara Copp, Defense News: The Missile Defense Review is out. Will Congress fund it?

WASHINGTON — The Missile Defense Review, formally unveiled Jan. 17 at the Pentagon by President Donald Trump, calls for major investments from both new technologies and existing systems.

“I will accept nothing less for our nation than the most effective, cutting-edge missile defense systems,” Trump said. “We have the best anywhere in the world. It's not even close.”

But unless Congress approves the major funding increase that will be required to make it all a reality, many of those programs may fall by the wayside — and questions are emerging over whether these systems will be funded by a Democratic House of Representatives that is looking to cut defense spending.

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Commentaries And Analysis On The Pentagon's Missile Defense Review

Here's All You Need To Know About The New Missile Defense Review That Was Just Released -- Warzone/The Drive
5 Key Missile Defense Technologies, Tactics The Pentagon Wants -- Investors Business Daily
Weaponizing space & dreams of new tech: US missile defense review in a nutshell -- RT
US will 'quit all treaties' & 'make militarization of space inevitable' with new Trump doctrine -- RT
Trump just reimagined how the US will fight nuclear wars — but it's a losing battle with Russia -- Alex Lockie, Business Insider
“Star Wars” Light? We Explain Trump's Missile Defense Strategy -- Popular Mechanics
Missile Defense Review a Multi-Billion IOU to White House -- Paul McLeary, Breaking Defense
Don't Expect (American) Lasers In Space Anytime Soon -- Task & Purpose
Donald Trump's Mission Impossible: Making His Unrealistic Missile Plan Work -- Joseph Cirincione, National Interest

President Trump Unveils The Pentagon's Missile Defense Review

Daily Mail: Trump plans massive missile defense push saying U.S. will 'detect and destroy any missile launched anywhere, any time, any place' in biggest push since Reagan's Star Wars


 * Trump spoke at the Pentagon to unveil new a missile-defense strategy in a deliberate echo of Ronald Reagan's 1983 launch of 'Star Wars' initiative
 * Trump's Missile Defense Review, the first compiled since 2010, was released during visit to the Pentagon
 * Says the Pentagon must expand defense technologies in space to more quickly detect, track and destroy incoming missiles
 * U.S. is considering putting a layer of sensors in space to more quickly detect enemy missiles when they are launched
 * Administration also plans to study the idea of basing interceptors in space, so the U.S. can strike incoming enemy missiles during the first minutes of flight
 * Existing threats from North Korea and Iran prompted changes, along with new advanced weapon systems being developed by Russia and China
 * New strategy declares North Korea an 'extraordinary threat' just seven months after the president said Pyongyang posed no danger to the U.S.
 * Trump also pledged to back NATO, days after a news report suggested he has often spoke about pulling America out of the alliance

Declaring that space is the new warfighting domain, President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed the U.S. will develop an unrivaled missile defense system to protect against advanced hypersonic and cruise missile threats from competitors and adversaries.

Trump said in a Pentagon speech that the U.S. will do what it takes 'to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anywhere, any time, any place.'

The outlook had echos of President Ronald Reagan's famed Strategic Defense Initiative, which critics derided as 'Star Wars.'

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WNU Editor: The Democrats are not on board .... US House Armed Services Committee Objects to Investment in Space Interceptors (Spuntik). More here .... President Trump's Plans to Boost Missile Defense Could Spark an Arms Race (Time). As for the 2019 Missile Defense Review, you can read it here .... Pentagon 2019 Missile Defense Review (USNI News).

More News On President Trump Unveiling The Pentagon's Missile Defense Review

Trump says US will develop space-based missile defense -- AP
Trump calls for expanded missile defense program -- AP
Trump announces huge expansion of US missile defense system -- The Guardian
Lasers, Drones, Hypersonic Weapons: Trump Unveils New Missile Plan -- US News and World Report
Trump missile defense review calls North Korea 'extraordinary threat' -- Reuters
Trump touts Space Force plans at Pentagon -- NBC
Trump announces new missile defense plan with focus on sensors in space -- FOX News
New US Missile Defence Strategy to Include 20 New Interceptors in Alaska - Trump -- Sputnik
Trump review calls for more missile defenses but no space weapons — yet -- Politico
Trump's Missile Defense Review Calls for Space Sensors, Drone Lasers -- DoD Buzz

President Trump To Announce Missile Defense Review

Daily Mail: Trump plans massive space-based missile defense push in biggest program since Ronald Reagan's Star Wars helped bring Soviet Union down

* Trump's Missile Defense Review - the first compiled since 2010 - are expected to be released during visit to the Pentagon
* It will say Pentagon must expand defense technologies in space and use those systems to more quickly detect, track and ultimately defeat incoming missiles
* U.S. is looking at putting a layer of sensors in space to more quickly detect enemy missiles when they are launched
* Administration also plans to study the idea of basing interceptors in space, so the U.S. can strike incoming enemy missiles during the first minutes of flight
* Existing threats from North Korea and Iran as well as new advanced weapon systems being developed by Russia and China prompted changes

The Trump administration will roll out a new strategy for a more aggressive space-based missile defense system to protect against existing threats from North Korea and Iran and counter advanced weapon systems being developed by Russia and China.

Details about the administration's Missile Defense Review - the first compiled since 2010 - are expected to be released during President Donald Trump's visit Thursday to the Pentagon with top members of his administration.

The new review concludes that in order to adequately protect America, the Pentagon must expand defense technologies in space and use those systems to more quickly detect, track and ultimately defeat incoming missiles.

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More News On The U.S. Missile Defense Review To Be Released Later Today

The Latest: Trump calls for expanded missile defense program -- AP
Space-based interceptors and drones with lasers: the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Review wish list revealed -- Defense News
Trump to unveil results of missile defense review Thursday -- UPI
New US strategy foresees sensors in space to track missiles -- AP
US Pentagon urges missile defence sensors in space -- BBC
Trump to roll out long-awaited missile defense review -- AFP
US plans new space sensors for missile defence against 'rogue states' -- The Guardian
Trump to unveil Missile Defense Review at Pentagon: report -- The Hill
Military eyes 'space-based layer of sensors' in new missile defense -- Washington Times
North Korea deemed 'extraordinary threat' in Trump missile defense review -- Reuters
Trump review calls for more missile defenses but no space weapons — yet -- Politico
Trump visits Pentagon as U.S. ramps up space-based missile defense strategy -- CBS

US Navy And Missile Defense Agency Succeed In Another Missile Defense Test

The U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful intercept of an intermediate-range ballistic missile with an SM-3 Block IIA fired from an Aegis Ashore facility in Hawaii. (U.S. Missile Defense Agency)

Defense News: US Navy, Missile Defense Agency shoot down an intermediate-range ballistic missile in space

WASHINGTON ― The U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency continued a hot streak Tuesday when they successfully shot down an intermediate-range ballistic missile target in space from its Hawaii-based Aegis Ashore facility.

The test marked the second consecutive successful intercept for the SM-3 Block IIA missile in development. The intercept followed an October success, which shook off two hard-luck consecutive failures ― one caused by a sailor error and a second caused by a misfired third-stage rocket motor. Both tests were on course for a successful intercept when the respective mishaps occurred, officials told Defense News.

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More News On Tuesday's Successful Missile Defense Test By The US Navy And Missile Defense Agency

U.S. missile defense system succeeds in significant test: military -- Reuters
Pentagon conducts latest successful test of US-Japan interceptor -- AFP
Aegis Ashore Scores Another Hit As US, Japan Build Up Defenses -- Breaking Defense
US Navy Shoots Down Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile Target in Test -- The Diplomat
US shoots down intermediate-range ballistic missile in space -- Defense Post
US Navy Shoot Down Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile in Test – Defence Agency -- Sputnik

Oversea U.S. Bases Are Vulnerable To Massive Missile Attacks

Reuters

Michael Peck, National Interest: Study This Picture Closely: It’s the U.S. Military's Worst Nightmare

While the United States has fretted over the possibility of a few North Korean ballistic missiles hitting the West Coast, China and Russia have amassed huge stockpiles of guided weapons that endanger American bases.

“Investing in non-kinetic and kinetic systems effective against the growing threat of cruise missile and UAV attacks would create more robust defenses for the theater bases that DoD continues to rely on for its operations.”

U.S. missile defense has focused so much on stopping ballistic missiles from hitting the American homeland, that it has neglected another pressing threat.

Massed salvos of cruise missiles and armed drones could devastate U.S. overseas bases, those vital bastions, such as Guam, that provide airfields, ports and supply bases. While the United States has fretted over the possibility of a few North Korean ballistic missiles hitting the West Coast, China and Russia have amassed huge stockpiles of guided weapons that endanger American bases.

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WNU Editor:  Russian President Putin wants even more precision missiles .... Putin Calls on Arms Industry to Speed Up Missile Construction (Moscow Times).

U.S. - Japan Announce A Successful Test Of Japan’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System

The Missile Defense Agency conducts the first intercept flight test of a land-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense weapon system from the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex in Kauai, Hawaii, U.S., December 10, 2015. U.S. Missile Defense Agency/Leah Garton/Handout via REUTERS

Reuters: Japan, U.S. say ballistic missile defense system test was successful

The United States and Japan successfully tested Japan’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system off the coast of Hawaii on Tuesday, U.S. military officials said in a statement released on Wednesday.

The test of the Aegis system, by Lockheed Martin Corp, “provides confidence in the future capability for Japan to defeat the developing threats in the region,” said Lieutenant General Sam Greaves, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

Japan last year decided to expand its ballistic missile defense capabilities with the U.S.-made Aegis system in response to what it said was a growing threat from North Korean rockets.

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Update: Japan’s New Ship-Based Interceptor Shoots Down a Ballistic Missile in Test (Defense One)

WNU Editor: The Japanese are sending a message .... Japan shows China and North Korea it can shoot down ballistic missiles, with some help from the US (Business Insider). The Japanese are also preparing to spend heavily on missile defense .... Japan to Spend Billions on U.S. Missile-Defense System (The Wall Street Journal).

New U.S. Defense Budget Authorizes The Pursuit Of More Options To Stop North Korean and Iranian Missiles

© KCNA / Reuters

Reuters: Bill asks Pentagon to examine more options for stopping North Korean missiles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill signed by President Donald Trump on Monday asks the Pentagon to pursue more options for defeating U.S.-bound North Korean missiles by using radar and more missiles to spot and shoot down inbound threats.

The National Defense Authorization Act gives the Pentagon $716 billion, with almost $10 billion going to the Missile Defense Agency to fund the expansion of missile defenses, emphasizing the need to stop any North Korean or Iranian attacks.

The military is already exploring whether the United States can add another layer to defenses to those already in place for intercepting incoming missiles in flight, Keith Englander, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s director for engineering, said at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, last week.

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WNU Editor: The North Koreans and Iranians appear to be cooperating .... Iran, N. Korea Grow Stockpile of Ballistic Missiles Capable of Striking U.S. Troops, Allies, Israel (Washington Free Beacon).

Pentagon Adjusting Missile Defense Policy To Include Threats From Russia And China

This U.S. missile defense system is called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD. LOCKHEED MARTIN

Stars and Stripes/Washington Post: Pentagon looks to adjust missile defense policy to include threats from Russia, China

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is working on an expanded U.S. missile defense policy that would address certain threats from Russia and China, departing from a previous strategy that focused nearly exclusively on rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran.

The new policy will still call for bolstered technology against rogue states, with a particular focus on weapons to intercept North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's missiles. But people familiar with the review say it will also mention the need to consider missile threats from Russia and China, a change from previous doctrine.

The document remains in a draft form and could change before its tentative release in late March.

Deliberations on the policy at the Pentagon come as Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens the United States with new weaponry, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile that he touted publicly for the first time during a presidential address on Thursday.

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Update: US revising missile defense policy to include threats from Russia, China: Report (Asia Times)

WNU Editor: This reassessment is no surprise. Red flags are being raised everywhere .... As Putin touts hypersonic weapons, America prepares its own arsenal. Will it be in time? (Aaron Mehta, Defense News).

US Northern Commander: '100 percent' Confident She Can Defend North America From A North Korean Missile Attack

Gen. Lori Robinson, the U.S. Northern Commander, (pictured right) said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee that North Korea's successful nuclear and missile tests over the past year "represents the most immediate threat to our homeland, and therefore remains NORTHCOM's highest priority." (US Air Force photo by Melanie Rodgers Cox/Released)

The Hill: General: '100 percent confident' in North Korea missile defense

The military official in charge of the command that defends the United States from missile threats says she's “100 percent confident” in her ability to protect the country from a North Korean ballistic missile attack, while also calling for more improvements to U.S. missile defense.

“I want to assure this committee today that I am confident that I can defend the United States,” Gen. Lori Robinson told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

“While I’m confident that we can defeat this threat today, it is critical that we continue to improve the ballistic missile defense enterprise, with emphasis on the development of improved sensor networks combined with interceptor capability and capacity in reliability.”

Robinson noted that budget predictability is key to being able to continue to protect the nation.

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Update: US Northern Commander is '100 percent' certain she can defend America from North Korean Missiles (Washington Examiner)

WNU Editor: 100 % confident ?!?!?!

U.S. Moves To Boost Homeland Missile Defense System

Groundbased Interceptor being emplaced at the Missile Defense Complex, Fort Greely, Alaska in July 2006. Image: US Army

L.A. Times: Trump administration moves to boost homeland missile defense system despite multiple flaws

Citing North Korea’s growing nuclear and ballistic missile threat, the Trump administration is moving to vastly expand the problem-plagued homeland missile defense system despite warnings that the planned upgrades may not succeed.

Immediate plans call for building two $1-billion radar installations and adding 20 rocket interceptors to the 44 already deployed in underground silos at Ft. Greely in Alaska and at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The Pentagon also is taking steps to launch new satellites to help each interceptor’s “kill vehicle” find, crash into and destroy incoming ballistic missiles high above the atmosphere.

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WNU Editor: I am surprised that there is very little U.S. political opposition to this increase in funding for U.S. missile defense, but this is not stopping other critics to the program in voicing their opinions .... Trump administration moves to boost homeland missile defense system despite multiple flaws (LA Times). More here .... Anti-ballistic missile defense shouldn't be a political football (The Hill).