The Backward Step on Missile Defense in the FY 2020 NDAA
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By Michaela Dodge
March 05, 2020
Three years ago, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 strengthened U.S. missile defense policy by highlighting the need to counter a growing range of ballistic missile threats to the U.S. homeland and U.S. allies and forces abroad. The Act said that “it is the policy of the United States to maintain and improve an effective, robust layered missile defense system capable of defending the territory of the United States, allies, deployed forces, and capabilities against the developing and increasingly complex ballistic missile threat….â€[1] No distinction was made between missile threats emanating from major powers like Russia and China or rogue regimes like North Korea and Iran.
Last year, the FY 2020 NDAA made a significant change to U.S. ballistic missile defense policy, but one that has gone largely unnoticed among proponents of strong U.S. missile defense programs. The new law states that the United States will as a matter of policy “rely on nuclear deterrence to address more sophisticated and larger quantity near-peer intercontinental missile threats to the homeland of the United States,†while improving missile defenses against “rogue states.â€[2] This change, though it may appear to reflect long-standing U.S. policy, is a step backward.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/03/05/the_backward_step_on_missile_defense_in_the_fy_2020_ndaa_115094.html
