RPT: REVIEW - Trump Unveils Missile Defense Expansion Plan Amid Concerns Over Escalating Arms Race

RPT: REVIEW - Trump Unveils Missile Defense Expansion Plan Amid Concerns Over Escalating Arms Race

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2019) The US Defense Department unveiled a new plan to strengthen and expand missile defense capabilities on land, sea and in space amid fears of sparking a nuclear crisis with Russia and China.

US President Donald Trump during a speech at the Pentagon earlier in the day unveiled the 2019 US Missile Defense Review (MDR), a strategy that calls for boosting land- and sea-based missile defense systems in Europe and the middle East along with studying the development of space-based interceptors.

"We're here to present the results of my administration's Missile Defense Review," Trump said on Thursday. "Our goal is simple: to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States - anywhere, anytime, anyplace."

One of the main focuses of the missile defense review is addressing the advanced missile capabilities developed by Russia and China.

"Russia and China are developing advanced cruise missiles and hypersonic missile capabilities that can travel at exceptional speeds with unpredictable flight paths that challenge existing defensive systems," the document said. "These are challenging realities of the emerging missile threat environment that US missile defense policy, strategy and capabilities must address."

The United States must enhance its ability to track more complex offensive missile threats like the hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV) and advanced cruise missiles, the document said.

The document points out Russia's HGVs that can maneuver and travel at speeds of Mach 5 in or above the atmosphere.

The document also highlights that Russia's SSC-8 cruise missile presents a potential major threat to US military operations and deterrence goals.

Moreover, the document said China is developing advanced technologies such as reentry vehicles and HGVs that pose a potential nuclear threat to US forces abroad and to US allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region.

The document said the United States plans to deploy a new missile defense radar system in the Pacific region by 2025.

The review states that the United States will strengthen regional missile defense architectures in the Indo-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.

For now the United States continues to depend on its nuclear deterrence to address Russian and Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities, the document said.

US Vice President Mike Pence during remarks at the same press conference said Trump has taken decisive action to extend US dominance on land, at sea, in air, and in cyberspace.

The Vice President reminded the audience that Trump has called for the establishment of a sixth branch the US Armed Forces to ensure American dominance in space.

According to the MDR document, the United States will explore space-based interceptors as a means of engaging with offensive missiles in their boost phase in order to boost its missile defense capabilities.

"The space-basing of interceptors also may provide significant advantages, particularly for boost-phase defense," the review said.

The new review also pushes for developing a layer of space-based sensors that will enhance US capabilities to detect and track more complex missile threats like HGVs.

The US Department of Defense is currently investing in and deploying capabilities to confirm that a US missile defense interceptor has destroyed an attacking warhead, which is a process called "kill assessment," the document said.

The Defense Department will field additional land- and sea-based missile defense systems to respond to the increasing missile threat against the United States, the document said.

The Defense Department will also field mobile and relocatable missile defense capabilities able to quickly respond to rapidly evolving conflicts as well as improve the integration of regional ballistic and cruise missile defenses with attack operations, the document added.

The new missile defense review reveals US plans to equip the US F-35 fighter jet aircraft with an interceptor to shoot down an adversary's ballistic missile during its boost phase.

The US Air Forces and the Missile Defense Review are calling for further study into how best to integrate the F-35, including its sensor suite, into the Ballistic Missile Defense System for regional and homeland defense, the document said.

The review calls for the deployment of an addition 20 Ground Based Interceptors at Fort Greely in the US state of Alaska.

The document mentions that the United States will equip Aegis Ashore sites in Poland and Romania with the new SM-3 Blk IIA interceptor missile to better defend NATO territory.

The US plans also propose utilizing the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Center in Hawaii in order to strengthen the US state's defense capabilities against potential North Korean missiles, the document said.

Moreover on North Korea, the document said Pyongyang has obtained Russian missile defense technology and has started developing mobile missile defense capabilities similar to those of Russia.

The United States is also seeking to develop a Multi-Object Kill Vehicle (MOKV) in order to improve its capability to engage any ICBM warhead, the document said.

The United States also plans to develop a laser system that can be mounted on an unmanned airborne platform to track and destroy missiles in their boost phase during flight.

The Department of Defense is currently developing a Low-Power Laser Demonstrator to evaluate the technologies necessary for mounting a laser on a drone to track and destroy missiles in their boost phase, the document added.

Former senior Pentagon analyst Chuck Spinney told Sputnik that Trump's new missile defense strategy will allow the US military-industrial complex to define US foreign policy for the next half century.

"The flood of Dollars to every congressional district will increase sharply, creating an even more powerful web of political patronage," Spinney said on Thursday when asked about the consequences of the new plan. "This web will, like its predecessors, lock in the continued funding of these programs for reasons of domestic politics that have nothing to do with the needs of foreign policy... unleashing huge uncontrollable domestic patronage forces that will shape such a US foreign policy for the next 30 to 50 years."

US House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith in a statement on Thursday objected to plans in the new Missile Defense Review (MDR) to invest in cost-prohibitive space-based interceptors and warned that the new strategy may drive Russia and China to boost their nuclear arsenal.

"I am concerned that this missile defense review could lead to greater investment in areas... such as a space-based interceptor layer that has been studied repeatedly and found to be technologically challenging and prohibitively expensive," Smith said.

Smith also warned that the United States must avoid creating missile defense policies that will fuel a nuclear arms race.

"Strategic stability is an important part of US national security, but missile defense policies that incentivize Russia and China to increase their nuclear arsenals will not serve the best long-term interest of the United States," Smith added.

The Arms Control Association said in a statement on Thursday that the United States should seek talks with Russia and China on strategic stability to address the impact of missile defense policies.

US discussions with Russian and China should also foreswear destabilizing steps like pursuing space-based interceptors and testing the SM-3 Block IIA against ICBMs, the nonpartisan group said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with Serbian newspapers published Wednesday reiterated that Russia is not interested in an arms race but will not close its eyes to US cruise missile deployment in Europe.