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US DoD seeks to bolster cruise missile defences
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| 02 September 2002 |
By Michael Sirak, JDW Staff Reporter, Washington DC
The US Department of Defense (DoD) is spearheading a programme to bolster the ability to defend the homeland against cruise missile attacks, as part of a broader effort among 19 federal agencies to protect North America from air threats.
However, even with the attention homeland air defence is receiving following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, funding for the programme remains a stumbling block, according to one senior DoD official.
"There has been a lot of talk," the official said, yet cruise missile defence (CMD) of North America remains essentially an "unfunded requirement". Informed estimates say an effective architecture of sensors and interceptors would be a multi-billion-dollar effort.
CMD is not a new mission, but current capabilities are not geared toward more likely scenarios like a single, low-flying stealthy cruise missile launched from a ship off the US coast. The Canadian-US North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been working for years to define the requirements for North American CMD in the post-Cold War environment, in which the threat of small-scale attack from rogue or even non-state actors has eclipsed the fear of a massive Soviet air assault.
"NORAD requirements are finally getting recognition," said the senior DoD official. After much co-ordination and deliberation, the DoD, working with the other agencies, has drafted a concept of operations (CONOPs) for 'homeland air security', including CMD, which is now under White House review.
Cruise missiles have been the 'other' missile threat to the US homeland, receiving less attention in policy debates on post-Cold War security risks than the spectre of long-range ballistic missiles. Yet they are a threat that is growing, according to US defence officials.
Land-attack cruise missiles, even unsophisticated variants, in the hands of so-called rogue states or terrorist groups could offer an accurate means of delivering a biological, chemical or nuclear payload.
There are about 140 types of cruise missiles today, some 70% of which are shorter range anti-ship systems, according to Ken Knight, defence intelligence officer for global trends in the Defense Intelligence Agency. Conversely, about half of the 120 systems under development will be land-attack systems, he said.
The CIA's unclassified December 2001 National Intelligence Estimate on missile threats facing the USA up to 2015 states that "one to two dozen countries probably will possess" land-attack cruise missiles by 2015 "posing primarily a theater-level threat - but with sufficient range to be forward-deployed on air- or sea-launch platforms" (JDW 16 January).
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