Congress Is Asking for an East Coast Missile Defense Site (That the Pentagon Doesn't Want)
Will it happen?
Sebastien Roblin [2]
On November 28, North Korea tested a Hwasong-15 missile with sufficient range to hit targets on the East Coast of the United States, including Washington, DC. This follows an earlier test in July which demonstrated Pyongyang’s ability to strike targets on the West Coast of North America.
The U.S. mainland is currently defended by the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System [3] (GMD), designed to hit fast, high-flying Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) in between the launch and terminal descent phases. This is a feat commonly compared to striking a bullet with another bullet. Currently, the GMD has two batteries with forty-four missile interceptors in Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg, California. These provide defense coverage for the entire continental United States from both North Korea and Iran [4].
Source URL (retrieved on December 4, 2017):
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/congress-asking-east-coast-missile-defense-site-the-pentagon-23456
