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Reinforcing Threats from Strategic Competitors
Let’s look first at our strategic competitors.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia continue to modernize, diversify, and expand their nuclear arsenals while deploying space and counterspace capabilities to hold our forces at risk.
They are also fielding more advanced offensive missiles—ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic—in greater numbers to not only deter involvement in a regional conflict but also to directly target the U.S. homeland.
The scale and scope of these multi-dimensional threats present significant risks to the American people and the homeland, U.S. national interests, our deployed forces, and our allies and partners.
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Missile Defense of the U.S. Homeland against PRC and Russia
Let’s turn to the role of missile defense as it relates to the Department’s number one defense priority: protection of the U.S. homeland.
I will remind everyone here that while the United States will of course defend itself against missile attacks emanating from any source, it is longstanding U.S. policy to address large, intercontinental-range nuclear threats from the PRC and Russia through strategic deterrence—not missile defense.
While this policy has been in place for more than a half century—since the Cold War—it bears repeating because the PRC and Russia routinely suggest that U.S. homeland missile defenses are able to thwart their advanced nuclear strike capabilities and therefore undermine strategic stability.
This assertion is false.
The size and sophistication of the PRC and Russia’s nuclear arsenals preclude any such possibility.
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Air and Missile Defense of the U.S. Homeland against Cruise Missile Threats
In terms of air and cruise missile defense of the U.S. Homeland, the Department has recognized that as conventional, non-nuclear missile technology by the PRC and Russia becomes more sophisticated, the speed and distance that cruise and other types of missiles can travel has expanded significantly.
These increased ranges are blurring previously clear delineations between regional and homeland missile defense, exposing seams in IAMD architectures.
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Source: U.S. Department of Defense
Speakers: John Plumb, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy
Format: Speech
China Policy Research 