Last week, the Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful flight test of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA. The SM-3 Block IIA interceptor is a key component of President Obama’s European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). The EPAA was designed to protect the U.S. homeland and U.S. allies in Europe from short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles, particularly from Iran.
Regrettably, the Administration cancelled the last phase of the EPAA (design and deployment of the SM-3 IIB, the follow-on system to the IIA) designed to augment U.S. homeland missile defense capabilities, only to revert back to the Bush Administration’s original plan to deploy more Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) interceptors.
Saturday’s test was only a flight test; evaluators were assessing nosecone performance, steering control, and the missile’s separation into stages. No target missile was launched, although the SM-3 missile family boasts a high intercept success rate. Target testing began in 2002 with the Block I, and since then the program has accrued an impressive 26 successful intercepts against simulated inbound missiles.
Such achievements could not come too soon. The growing Iranian nuclear threat has Europe and the Middle East concerned, particularly given the revolutionary state’s continued propensity for subversive terrorist activity and covert warfare. North Korea’s nuclear program and continued boasts as to its capabilities (which occasionally stretch into the outlandish) continue to perturb defense officials in the U.S. and Pacific. This concern extends to the U.S. homeland as well: It only takes 33 minutes for a nuclear missile to reach the U.S. from anywhere in the world.
In today’s atomically unstable environment, the need for a strong U.S. missile defense system is real and growing, and defensive weapons like the SM-3 cannot be left out of the strategic deterrence equation. By taking a strong defensive stance and communicating to adversaries that their strategic attacks could be rendered powerless, missile defense systems are crucial to a strong deterrence posture.
The United States should not ignore these realities. A strong U.S. missile defense system is imperative in order for the U.S. to ensure its strategic security and that of its vital allies. For the SM-3 IIA program to be doing well in its early stages is an excellent start, but the Administration must not lose sight of the progressive nature of the ballistic missile threat. Failure to consider future development and deployment issues now will leave future Administrations playing catch-up ball against a rapidly advancing menace.
Cameron Swathwood is currently a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. For more information on interning at Heritage, please click here.
